The incidence of People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) in the bifurcated Karimnagar district has come down from 12.07% in 2004-05 to 1.20% now (till October this year), thanks to a slew of awareness programmes undertaken by the district administration over the years.
HIV prevalence in adults stands at 0.96% while the antenatal care mothers testing positive has also declined from 3.38% in 2004-05 to 0.04% at present.
The existing cases have been reported from Karimnagar, Huzurabad, Jammikunta, Shankarpatnam, Choppadandi and Manakondur mandals.
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The reasons for the prevalence of existing cases in Karimnagar district has been attributed to migration of people to Mumbai, Surat and Bhiwandi where they are said to have contracted the virus. Besides, only 9% of the population uses condoms in the district, revealed a report presented by district medical and health department during the World AIDS Day celebration here on Sunday.
On the occasion, district medical and health officials organised a rally from Circus Grounds to Film Bhavan with the slogan of ‘Communities make the difference’.
Zilla Parishad chairperson K. Vijaya flagged off the rally along with DMHO Ram Manohar Rao and additional DMHO Sujatha. Reacting to the decline in the number of HIV/AIDS cases, Ms. Vijaya called upon the people to undergo HIV tests and avail free medicines distributed by the government.
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Mr. Manohar Rao stressed the need for undergoing HIV tests before marriage and hoped that the government would bring in a special legislation in this regard.