828 HIV positive cases, 47 deaths: This Indian state on high alert amid AIDS outbreak among students

As many as forty-seven students died from HIV in Tripura, and 828 have tested HIV-positive, according to a senior official of the Tripura State AIDS Control Society (TSACS).

"We have so far registered 828 students who are HIV positive. Out of them, 572 students are still alive and we have lost 47 people due to the dreaded infection. Many of the students have migrated out of Tripura for higher studies in coveted institutions across the country," a senior official of the TSACS said.

Tripura AIDS Control Society has identified students from as many as 220 schools and 24 colleges and universities who take injectable drugs. Not only this, the recent data shows that almost every day, five to seven new cases of HIV are being detected, a senior official of TSACS has said.

Addressing a media workshop organized jointly by the Tripura Journalist Union, Web Media Forum and TSACS, the Joint Director of TSACS shared a statistical presentation of the overall scenario of HIV in Tripura.

He said, "So far, 220 schools and 24 colleges and universities have been identified where students are found to be addicted to intervenous drug abuse. We have collected the data from a total of 164 health facilities across the state. Reports are collected from almost all the blocks and subdivisions before making this presentation."

On the total number of active cases in the state, a senior official of the TSACS said, "Till May 2024, we have registered 8,729 people in the ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) centres. The total number of people who are alive with HIV is 5,674. Among them, 4,570 are males, while 1,103 are females. Only one patient among them is a transgender."

Attributing the spike in HIV cases to the use of intervenous drug abuse, Bhattacharjee said, "In most of the cases, the children belong to affluent families who are detected positive to HIV. There are families where both parents are in government service and don't hesitate in fulfilling the demands of the children. By the time they realize that their children fell prey to drugs, it was too late."

Project Director TSACS Dr Samarpita Datta, Secretary Tripura Web Media Forum Abhisek Dey, President Tripura Journalist Union Pranab Sarkar and other senior leaders of the Tripura Health Department remained present in the workshop.