Jammu, Dec 2: HIV spread in Kathua district villages has worried authorities about local migrant workers who return home from various states of the country without a proper medical test for human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
The authorities concerned suspect migrant laborers, truck drivers, and other types of employees who serve outside Jammu and Kashmir and stay away from their homes for a long time and on returning, they unintentionally become the cause of HIV spread in the villages of the border district.
Quoting figures an official of J&K AIDS Control Society who works in Kathua told Greater Kashmir that “Of 295, 136 are adult male, 143 are adult female, 11 are male children and 5 are female children – People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and registered for care at Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Kathua who have been provided medicines.”
Citing the increasing figures from the border district, the official said that they have recorded as many as 2 to 4 HIV positive cases every month in the district following random sampling of the suspected patients infected with tuberculosis, comorbidity at the Integrated Counseling and Testing Center (ICTC) established at GMC Kathua.
“We take samples of the patients who suffer from multiple diseases but are not responding to short-term medical treatment,” the official said while claiming that the undiagnosed cases are many in the Kathua district.
The officer said that “People from Kathua district’s remote areas go out of Jammu and Kashmir in Delhi, Maharashtra, Punjab, and other areas for Palledari / labor work/ truck drivers/ other kinds of jobs, and they stay away from their families for over six months to one year. During this time, they come in contact with commercial sex workers which leads to the spread of HIV.”
“When these HIV-infected people develop symptoms they avoid getting themselves tested for HIV and in this manner, the virus spreads and goes undetected in the villages of the district,” the official said.
The officer said that the cases surface when their immune system weakens and fails to respond to the medical treatment.
“We have most cases from Bani, Basohli, Billawar, Hiranagar, and Nagri areas of Kathua district,” the official added while insisting on awareness among the people to avoid unsafe intercourse.