Decline in HIV cases; Ahmedabad's AIDS Control Society breathes easy

While the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may continue to worry the city, officials of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation AIDS Control Society (AMC ACS) have a reason to relax. According to the society, the number of HIV positive people has dropped in the last three years.

Dr Umesh Oza, in-charge project director of AMC ACS, says, "Compared to 2009-10 and 2010-11, there has been a considerable drop in the percentage of HIV positive patients this year till October. This can be attributed to all the awareness programs and educative shows that take place in the city."

According to him, blood tests of people in the high-risk category during 2009-10 threw up 4.45% positive results. During 2010-11, there were 3.31% patients with HIV while in 2011-12 (April to October), the percentage fell to 2.97%.

He further claimed that number of HIV positive pregnant women also fell this year. He revealed, "In 2009-10, we had found 0.48% HIV positive cases among pregnant women; during 2010-11 this figure was 0.27% while in 2011-12 our tests revealed 0.23% HIV positive cases."

When quizzed on the number of patients being affected by HIV, Oza said, "During April - October, we received 1,055 HIV positive patients. Of these, 47 were under 14 years of age, 94 were between 15 and 24 years, 361 were in the age group of 25-34, 415 were between 35-49 years and 138 people were above 50 years of age."

However, a pan-India study conducted by Metropolis Healthcare Ltd revealed that the maximum incidence of HIV is seen among those less than 30 years of age. It has been observed that HIV infection ratio between males and females is 60:40. Of the screened positive tests, over 50% are confirmed cases tested with Western Blot Test for HIV-1 specific.

According to their survey results, of the 6,170 people screened in Gujarat, 97.08% (5990) were normal, 2.92% (182) were found to have 'abnormal' results. Of these, 116 were males, 62 females and two children.

Again, of those who were screened and tested positive, 47.22% people were in the age bracket of 0-30 years; 23.88% between 30-40 years; 16.13% between 40-50 years and 12.77% were those above 50 years.