HIV and AIDS remain major global health issues. This is a virus that causes damage to the human immune system—a part of it, the CD4 cells (T cells), play a vital role in defending against invading organisms.
If left unattended, HIV will lead to the progressive diminishment of a person’s immunity, thus making them prone to opportunistic infection and some types of cancer. This very acute form of HIV infection is known as AIDS.
Agartala: A total of 1,790 people have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the state for the period of 2023-24, officials announced recently. The positivity percentage is 0.92 percent. This has been under the National AIDS Control Programme and part of efforts to rein in the spread of the virus in the state.
According to Samarpita Dutta, Project Director of the Tripura State AIDS Control Society, in 2022-23, 1,847 new infections were detected with a positivity rate of 0.89%. Besides, the diseases claimed 67 lives, including those of two students, during 2022-23, while the number of deaths stood at 44 in 2023-24.
The National AIDS Control Programme has been operational in Tripura since April 1999. Within the period between April 2007 and May 2024, 828 students got registered as PLHIV, out of whom 47 were reported to have died within the period of these 17 years. All the registered students have been provided with free Anti-Retroviral Treatment against the backdrop of guidelines issued by the NACO.
Assuring that the state government has initiated a plethora of preventive measures against the manifold rise of HIV/AIDS, Chief Minister Manik Saha, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon by profession, said that 828 students of the school have turned positive for HIV since April 2007, while 47 of them died. Recent media reports created confusion about the number of infected students and the number of fatalities.
“All affected students have received or are receiving free Anti-Retroviral Treatment in accordance with NACO guidelines,” said Saha, the minister in charge of the Health and Family Welfare portfolio.
Specific guidelines and action plans chalked out by NACO to fight the HIV/AIDS disease in the state are being followed up seriously by the Tripura State AIDS Control Society.
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