Ranchi. The number of HIV infected in Jharkhand is increasing every day. The data of Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society shows that on an average three to four HIV infections are being identified in the state every day. In contrast to the national trend in Jharkhand, the number of HIV patients has increased by more than 200 percent in these years, even when there has been a decrease of about 37 percent in the number of HIV patients between 2010 and 2019 across the country. . According to the study reports released from time to time by the organizations working for the treatment and rehabilitation of HIV-AIDS patients, it has been found that more than 90 percent of the cases of HIV infection in the state are from outside the states in connection with the employment. People living in the area for a long time are returning with the infection. Most of these people belong to the lower income group. There are hundreds of cases in which truck drivers and migrant laborers brought the infection from outside.
In Jharkhand, 1221 new HIV infections have been identified in the state during the last ten months from December 2020 to October 2021. If we calculate, an average of four new infected are being found every day. According to the data of AIDS Control Society, 25,751 HIV patients were identified in the state till December 2020, which has increased to 26,972 by October 2021. Of these, the number of males is 16184 and the number of females is 10788. The maximum number of patients are in Hazaribagh district. The number of HIV infected here is 3126. Jamshedpur is at number two, where the number of patients is 1822. In Ranchi, 1522 patients have been identified and according to the number of patients, it is at number three in the state.
Talking about treatment, there are 13 ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) centers in the state, where the number of patients coming for consultation and medicines is 12732. Obviously, the rest of the patients have either moved out of the state or are not getting their treatment at government centres. The shortage of doctors in ART centers is causing a lot of problems to the patients. The situation is that 8 out of 13 ART centers do not have doctors. However, once after the investigation, they are getting medicines regularly according to the prescribed protocol. Jharkhand AIDS Control Society claims that continuous monitoring and counseling of patients is being done. HIV testing of pregnant women is being made mandatory to prevent the transmission of AIDS from women to children during pregnancy.
Continuous efforts are being made to provide benefits of government schemes to the patients, but despite this, lack of awareness is hindering it. In Jharkhand, out of 12,732 patients, only 5,000 have got an Ayushman card. 4 thousand are getting the benefit of State Security Pension Scheme. Only 9 thousand people are taking the benefit of Antyodaya Anna Yojana. So far only 50 patients have taken free legal aid. 180 children infected with HIV are in different orphanages. It is being told that most of the infected do not want to come out in the open to take advantage of the schemes. Let us inform that on the foundation day of Jharkhand on November 15, the government has started Universal Pension Scheme. In this, a pension of 1000 rupees will be given every month to HIV infected people.
