Guwahati: Peddler Drug Arrested by Police Assam during the massive crackdown launched under Himanta Biswa Sarma the government turned into HIV positive, although health officials said infection occurred before they were submitted in prison.
Officials at Assam State AIDS Control Society (Asacs) told Tii on Monday that 116 prison inmates had tested HIV positive in various prisons in Assam since April since April.
Significantly, 73.27% of them, nearly 85 cases, came from prisons and special central prisons, Nagaon, followed by seven each in Morigaon and Nalbari, six in Cachar and four Golaghat prisons and carriicch of Anglong.
In Sivasagar, Jorhat and Darrang prison, one detention has been found HIV positive between April and September.
“Most of the 116 prisoners were drug users injected and arrested by the police during the recent incerver on drug vendors,” Ranjan Jyoti Deka, monitoring and evaluating officers at the Asacs told TII, citing the latest reports from counseling centers and testing centers Integrated.
4,495 prisoners were tested during the period.
Health screenings have been intensified in recent years, despite being initiated in 2017.
Assam became the first country in the country that year to launch a prison intervention program.
Sexual behavior that is not protected between many people and the use of injected drugs is said to be the two most main causes of HIV infection.
Health officials are surprised at the findings that are mainly due to sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment, although in accordance with the estimated report of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), 2019, the annual new HIV infection rate in Assam has reduced by 22.7%.
However, HIV detection among the detainees brings the opportunity to prevent the spread of the virus.
“In prison we believe they cannot spread HIV.
We have developed a mechanism to bring it to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to effectively suppress replication,” said Pankaj Choudhury, who led the North East Naco Technical Support Unit, placed an emphasis on preventing Their high-risk behavior after release from prison.
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He said that currently screening is happening in prison in 22 Assam districts and more cases can be detected.
“Our mission is to make 95% of HIV-infected people know their health status.
Otherwise they will continue to spread infection,” Choudhury said.
In 2020-21, a total of 1,279 HIV-positive cases were detected in Assam.
In 2019-20, 1,955 cases, in 2018-19, 1,715 cases and in 2017-18, 1,586 cases were detected.
The health department’s sources said the detection of cases fell last year because most of the technicians and counselors were involved in the Covid battle.