NEW LIGHT: Professors of Population Studies in London School of Economics and Political Science Tiziana Leone and Ernestina Coast in Guntur on Monday. — Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

GUNTUR: A recent sample study by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has revealed that the percentage of women getting infected by HIV/AIDS is growing at an alarming rate.

Of the total number of persons who get infected by HIV/AIDS, more than 40 per cent are women, Charca national project coordinator Alankar Malavya said. The survey dispelled the conventional notion that sex workers continued to be in the high-risk group. On the contrary rate of incidence among housewives and young women lured into trafficking was growing.

"We have focused on the district-level targeted intervention programmes aimed at increasing capacities and reduce the vulnerability of young women in India to sexually transmitted infections, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection, besides building their capacities," he told reporters here on Monday.

He was part of a three-member delegation that included two professors in Population Studies in London School of Economics and Political Science, Tiziana Leone and Ernestina Coast, who had visited various places in the district to observe the functioning of various networking cells.

Baseline study

A baseline study to enumerate the number of HIV/AIDS infected people was commissioned in 2006 by the NACO and the Indian Institute of Population Studies had been entrusted with the task of submitting a report by July-August this year, he said. A report from the Positive People's Network put infected persons in the country at 5.7 million.

There was need to build the capacities of women in rural areas so that they accessed the facilities provided by the government, Tiziana Leone and Ernestina Coast said.

Charca project director M. Rajasekhar was present.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail