The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Prakasam tops in HIV/AIDS incidence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 30, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Prakasam tops in HIV/AIDS incidence

Special Correspondent

YSR to flag off rally from Ongole on December 1

HYDERABAD: The State continues to be counted among those reporting high incidence of HIV/AIDS even as it launches an intensified awareness campaign with a massive rally on World AIDS Day on December 1 at Ongole.

Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy will flag off the rally and address a public meeting at Ongole which will be attended by Health Minister K. Rosaiah, Telugu film stars and AIDS control officials.

No time to lose: Rosiah

After releasing a set of seven posters for the campaign at a press conference here on Tuesday, the Health Minister said the future for the State would be "dreadful unless the disease is tackled properly".

Ongole has been selected for the State-level rally because the urban centres in Prakasam district had reported a high 4 per cent incidence. This has been attributed to the location of granite quarries at several places in the district where youth from other States work, away from their families. This apart the National Highway no 5 passes through the district.

Sentinel data

Going by the 2004 sentinel surveillance data, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has estimated that 51,53,221 people in the country were infected with HIV and 5.68 lakhs of them, nearly one-tenth, were from Andhra Pradesh. Ten per cent of them were full-blown AIDS cases.

Praksam district is followed by Guntur and Karimnagar districts with 3.5 per cent each. Ranga Reddy district reported the lowest 0.5 per cent. The rate in East Godavari declined to 3 per cent following a systematic campaign. Despite heavy influx of pilgrims from different corners of the country, Tirupati reported only 1.25 per cent. Seventeen out of 23 districts in the State reported less than 1 per cent incidence.

Mr. Rosaiah, I. V. Subba Rao, Principal Secretary, Health, K. Damayanthi, Director, State AIDS Control Society, said there would be a media consultation workshop in Hyderabad on December 2, a walk the next day, a religious leaders' meet on December 4, and cricket match and a rally in Osmania University on December 5.

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