HYDERABAD: Hyderabad has the highest number of HIV infected people in the state, revealed the data released Telangana State AIDS Control Society (TSACS) on the eve of World AIDS Day.
Telangana, that already features in the top five states of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) in the country, also is one of the states to have the highest concentration of young adults with HIV.
The theme for the 2019 observance is “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Community by Community”.
This year the focus is on the key role that high- risk community groups such as female sex workers (FSW), men having sex with men (MSM), transgender, hijra, Injecting Drug Users (IDU); the Bridge Group such as long-distance truckers and migrants; are playing in the response to HIV.
TSACS, has 16,000 registered MSMs and 750 transpersons.
Hyderabad, with close to 22,472 people taking the medication in ART centres, also has the highest prevalence of children below 14 years with HIV.
Speaking to Express, Dr Anna Prasanna, additional director of TSACS, explained, “Hyderabad has the largest population across the state and also is the focal point for sex workers, migrant and IDUs. Additionally, a lot of MSMs or PLHIVs who are from rural areas shift to Hyderabad for treatment as stigma is less compared to villages.”
Adding to this Karthik, one of the MSMs and also the project manager for Darpan Foundation, said, “The stigma with MSMs is doubled. Their sexuality in itself is an uncomfortable subject to discuss, and once they get affected, the LGBTQ community in itself stigmatises their diagnosis.”
However, Dr Prasanna also said, “Prevalence of HIV among FSWs has been reduced from over 10 per cent in 2003 to 1.56 per cent in 2017. MSMs have been able to bring it down from 8.47 per cent to 2.69 per cent; IDUs have been able to bring it down from 13.15 per cent to 6.26 during the same period. Migrants prevalence has been reduced from 1.6per cent in 2006 to 0.51per cent in 2017.”