Despite a 27 percent reduction in new HIV/AIDS infections since 2010, Bihar records around 8,000 new cases of people living with HIV (PLHIV) every year, ranking third after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in new HIV/AIDS infections, said Dr S Siddhartha Shankar Reddy, health specialist of UNICEF Bihar, on the verge of an HIV/AIDS awareness event.
According to the most recent sentinel survey conducted by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) in 2017, young people accounted for a greater incidence of PLHIV (people living with HIV) in the state.
Dr. Reddy noted that intravenous drug users and gays or men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for the majority of new HIV/AIDS cases each year.
According to Dr. Reddy, the trend of increasing infection among female sex workers (FSW) has now shifted to MSM. The greatest at-risk groups for developing HIV/AIDS were truck drivers and migratory workers.
During the pandemic in 2020-21, HIV testing took a knock, with 5,77,103 persons tested, with 1.12 percent (6,469) testing positive. According to state health officials, 8,51,346 people were checked in 2019-20, with 1.16 percent (9,928) of them testing positive for HIV.
“Bihar’s interventions have been effective,” said Anshul Agarwal, project director of the Bihar State AIDS Control Society, “from 1.83 percent HIV/AIDS positive percentage in 2018-19, when 11,000 out of 6 lakh people tested positive, to 0.91 percent in 2021-22, when 7,139 out of 6,87,439 tested until February, reported positive” (BSACS).
HIV is a major global public health concern, having claimed the lives of over 36.3 million [27.2–47.8 million] people to date.
HIV infection has no known cure. HIV infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, allowing people living with HIV to live long and healthy lives, thanks to increased access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care, including for opportunistic infections.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the immune system, weakening individuals’ resistance to a variety of illnesses and cancers that people with healthy immune systems can resist. Infected individuals gradually become immunodeficient as the virus destroys and inhibits the function of immune cells. CD4 cell count is a common way to gauge immune function.
