Unsafe sex practices accounts for 90% of HIV cases in Nagaland

Eastern Mirror Desk Dimapur, Nov. 30: December 1 marks the 30th anniversary of World Aids Day and statistics reveal that, at present, there are 37 million people living with HIV and Aids across the globe. According to a United Nations Development Programme report, Nagaland falls under the category of ‘generalised epidemic’ because of high HIV-prevalence among the antenatal clinics group. Available data also lists Dimapur, Kohima and Tuensang as the districts with the highest HIV-prevalence rate in Nagaland. The district-wise report on HIV scenario as of May 2018, however, revealed that the HIV-prevalence in the state has come down in the last five years. In Nagaland, with a population of around 20 lakh, 10,16,700 blood samples were screened between 1999 to 2018. Out of those samples, 22,878 were reported HIV positive, according to a report from the Nagaland State Aids Control Society (Nsacs). In its website, Nsacs reported that 89.66% of the people contract Aids through unsafe heterosexual sex whereas 1.23% contract through unsafe homosexual/bisexual sex in Nagaland. Bazo Kire, an activist, told Eastern Mirror that the reason for such a high rate of transmission was unprotected sex.  “The route of transmission is mainly due to unsafe sex among young people,” he said—as opposed to the previous years where drug injection was the main reasons that lead to HIV transmission, while 6 %  were from parent to child route, 1 % from needle and syringes, and 3 % from unknown route. Kire also pointed out that the lifestyle of the current generation is very “casual”; and hoped for more awareness programmes in schools about the deadly virus. “Everyone needs to step forward and be conscious of what their status is and get tested without hesitation,” Kire said referring this year’s theme, ‘know your status.’ For that, she said, HIV testing programmes should be expanded and made available without stigma and discrimination in the state.