HIV cases among women on rise in Bangalore

Aruna, a resident of RT Nagar, was infected with HIV from her husband.

While her husband died due to the infection, she is struggling for a living with her two children.

Aruna’s case is not an isolated one. In the city, hundreds of such women have been infected with HIV from their spouses. And in most cases, their children also get infected.

According to a report by the National Aids Control Programme (NACP), by the end of 2011, 34 women were found HIV positive out of 22,286 pregnant women tested in 14 government hospitals in the city. In 2009, of 11,997 pregnant women tested, 20 were found HIV positive.

In 2010, 49 women were found HIV positive out of 19,918 pregnant women tested.

“This is due to lack of sex awareness among the public. Hence there is an urgent need to provide awareness on safe sex among youth. Most HIV positive cases are reported among youth. They visit brothels and indulge in unprotected sex believing that they will not contact any disease in their first encounter. There is also a myth that an HIV positive person will be cured of the disease if he has sex with virgins. Due to this wrong notion, men marry girls and transfer their disease to them,” said Tejashwini, an NGO activist who works for the welfare of sex workers.

While the NACP report says that, 12,016, 20,585 and 22,873 women were provided counselling in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively, Tejashwini says hospitals hardly do any counseling.

“Apart from the tests, hospitals have to provide them counseling. But most of them do not. They just give the figures for record’s sake,” she alleged.