Ropar, May 3
The apprehensions about the threat posed by the AIDS virus seem to be coming true. Although the Health Department of the state has claimed that Ropar is an AIDS-free district, an NGO working on the AIDS awareness programme in Anandpur Sahib block has recorded 17 deaths due to the virus in the current year.
The Director of the Arpan organisation, Mr Kuldeep Chand, while talking to this correspondent said seven deaths due to AIDS had been recorded in Gag village, four in Dher village, two each in Mehan and Lodhimajra villages and one each in Benwal and Surewal villages. All these villages fall in the Anandpur Sahib block.
In most of the death cases recorded by the NGO the victims had got their disease confirmed from private or government hospitals outside the district. However, due to the stigma attached with the disease they did not take treatment from any proper hospital. Instead they kept taking treatment from quacks or babas who claimed to treat the disease with their mystic powers.
Through information collected from the people affected by the disease the organisation said a baba having his dera near Kiratpur Sahib claimed to treat AIDS with his mystic powers. The enormity with which the AIDS was spreading in the area could be gauged from the number of persons visiting the dera of the said baba for treatment.
Most of those who had died of AIDS were truck drivers or were associated with the business of transport. In certain cases due to ignorance the wife and kids of the primary AIDS patients were infected. Last year also the report of 20 kids getting orphaned due to AIDS was also provided to the authorities concerned of the Health Department but no action was taken in the matter.
Mr Kuldeep Chand further said that the Anandpur Sahib block was more prone to AIDS virus due to the Nangal truck union that had over 1800 truck operators associated with it. Over 5,000 drivers and cleaners employed with the union frequently travel out of the state and bring the AIDS virus to Punjab.
Earlier also the data collected by this correspondent from various private hospitals in the district had revealed that many patients were being detected positive for AIDS. The patients detected in these hospitals were generally referred to the PGI as there was no facility in the district for counselling or treatments of AIDS patients.
The much publicised Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) in the district had not become functional as yet.
