HIV cases rise in Haryana
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Oct 25 — The number of HIV positive cases is increasing in Haryana, and this district tops the list.

According to official information, as many as 11 persons have died so far in the state due to AIDS.

Nearly 100 HIV positive cases have been detected in the district out of which 57 patients have been found only in the Rohtak subdivision. Fourteen cases have been found in the Meham subdivision and 13 and 16 cases in the Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh subdivisions, respectively. Besides, 40 cases have been detected in Hisar, 38 in Bhiwani, 21 in Sonepat, 14 in Rewari, 11 in Jind, nine in Faridabad and four each in Gurgaon, Mahendragarh, Panipat and Kaithal districts and two in Kurukshetra.

The cases detected by private medical practitioners are not included in the figure.

With a view to detecting the disease, the state government set up an AIDS surveillance centre at Medical College and Hospital here in 1985. The centre tested blood samples of nearly 1.5 lakh persons and 270 persons tested HIV positive. Besides, symptoms of the disease were found in 360 persons by various blood banks.

Datas reveal that there has been a rapid increase in the HIV positive patients. According to official sources, one among every 2000 persons was afflicted with the disease as per a survey conducted in 1991. But the survey conducted last year revealed that eight among every 1000 persons were affected with the disease. While at the national level 8.8 persons were found afflicted with AIDS.

The health authorities said the actual number of patients suffering from AIDS might be much more as private doctors could not detect the disease due to lack of proper equipment.

The department had set up eight clinics all over the state to detect AIDS. The samples of blood of nearly 6000 persons were tested between 1991 and 1997 at these clinics and four persons were found HIV positive.

The samples of blood of nearly 76,000 persons were checked at the AIDS Surveillance Centre here from 1986 to 1992 and 47 persons were found affected with the disease. But 268 persons were found suffering from HIV positive out of 64,000 persons from 1992 to 1997.