The Hindu : Karnataka News : Counselling has helped reduce incidence of HIV, says official

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Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Counselling has helped reduce incidence of HIV, says official

Staff Correspondent

Inauguration: Zilla panchayat president Geeta Nandini Gowda inaugurating a programme on the occasion of World AIDS Day in Chitradurga on Saturday.

Chitradurga: Owing to intense awareness programmes and counselling undertaken by the Union Government, the incidence of HIV in the country has reduced. The number of HIV-positive people in the country is currently 25 lakh, compared to 32 lakh in 2001, district AIDS nodal officer P.C. Kumaraswamy has said.

Speaking at the World AIDS Day programme organised by the Department of Health, in association with the district hospital and Myrada, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), here on Saturday, he said that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are currently over three crore people with HIV in the world. In blood tests conducted on 12,61,700 people in the State this year, 92,074 were found to be infected with HIV, he said. “Among them, 37 per cent are women, 3.8 per cent are children below 14 years of age,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said.

Referring to Chitradurga district, he said 2,527 people had visited the voluntary consultation centres and 305 were found to be HIV positive. Sixteen people had died this year of AIDS in the district, which has 320 HIV-positive people. The number of full-blown cases of AIDS was estimated at 68, he said.

Elaborating on the activities of Myrada in HIV education and prevention, Shweta, coordinator of the NGO, said that it had been holding several awareness programmes particularly among sex workers. Zilla panchayat president Geeta Nandini Gowda and vice-president B. Kenchappa were present.

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