Thousands of people in India's northeastern region have pledged to fight a growing AIDS threat, amid an alarming increase in prostitution and the number of intravenous drug users.
School children, health workers and rehabilitated drug addicts marched through the streets in the states of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram, on World AIDS day, Friday, to create awareness about checking the spread of HIV.
"The slogan this year is 'AIDS - Men Make a Difference', meaning we need to stop men from spreading this deadly disease", Assam Health Minister Kamala Kalita said.
Authorities in the region have expressed concern at the rate at which AIDS is spreading in the area.
India's northeast, which borders the heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, has a major problem with intravenous drug usage which is the most common cause of HIV infection here.
The seven states account for less than three per cent of India's one billion strong population, but is home to more than 30 per cent of the country's total intravenous drug users, according to various estimates.
"Unlike in other states where promiscuous sex is responsible for the spread of HIV, here it is the sharing of needles by drug users that has led to a quantum increase in the number of AIDS cases," S.I. Ahmed, chairman of the AIDS Prevention Society, said.
Official health ministry figures say 50,000 people in the seven northeastern states are infected with HIV, where an estimated 200,000 people are intravenous drug users.
"Creating awareness apart, we are adopting the harm-minimization approach to tackle the spread of AIDS," said Chiranjeeb Kakoty, a local community health expert.
"We are asking intravenous drug addicts to use bleached or disposable needles or take drugs orally to reduce the risk level," he said.
Experts also stressed the need to educate sex workers, following surveys that suggest most prostitutes in the region were engaging in unprotected sex.
The AIDS Prevention Society, a community health organization in Assam, has launched Project Sakhi (Friend) -- a peer based intervention scheme -- aimed at increasing awareness about HIV among prostitutes.
An Indian Health Ministry report released late last year admitted that as many as 3.5 million Indians were HIV positive by mid-1998, although unofficial estimates put the figure at closer to five million.
Despite the efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and pressure groups, the government agencies in the region have so far failed to come up with any definite measures to combat drug addiction and prostitution -- GUWAHATI (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
