46000 People Detected With HIV In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: While World AIDS Day is being observed across the globe on Saturday, 46,000 people have been found afflicted with the killer virus in Odisha.

According to the survey report of the Health Department, of the HIV positive patients in Odisha from 2002 till October 2018, Ganjam district has the highest number of 15,034, followed by Cuttack (6,264), Sambalpur (2,745), Khurda (2,523), Koraput (2,356), Angul (1,655), Balasore (1,460) and Balangir (1,334).

On the other hand, Boudh district has the lowest number of such patients with 59 followed by Deogarh (106), Sonepur (123) and Kandhamal (170).

In terms of the number of pregnant women afflicted with the HIV, 1,539 had tested HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive from 2002 till 2013. A total of 799 pregnant women tested positive during 2014-17 and 94 till June 2018.

The Health Department also said that the number of HIV patients in the state is gradually coming down since 2007.

While 10,100 HIV patients were identified in 2007, the number had drastically come down to 2,422 in 2017.

Of 12 lakh patients, who had undergone ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test in 2017, 3301 have been provided HIV treatment.

Apart from this, HIV mortality rate in the state has come down appreciably during 2007-17. While 6600 patients had died in 2007, the number of mortality dropped to 1389 in 2017, the survey report said.