Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The number of PLHIV (people living with HIV) has seen a rising trend in Assam over the past five years, with 2,241 people dying from the dreaded disease between 2020 and 2024. In the eight Northeastern states, including Assam, as many as 8,196 people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) died in the same period. Among the NE states, Manipur recorded the highest number of deaths, with 3,221 HIV-positive people perishing.
As per available information, 379 people died due to HIV in Assam during 2020, increasing to 677 in 2021. Between 2022 and 2024, 609 perished in 2022, 377 in 2023, and 243 died from HIV in 2024. The number of deaths from HIV was the second-highest in Assam, after Manipur.
In Manipur, the number of deaths from HIV in 2020 was recorded at 812; in 2021 it was 841; in 2022 it was 579; in 2023 the figure was 490; and in 2024, the number of deaths was 499.
As for the other six NE states, between 2020 and 2024, fatalities from HIV in Nagaland were 1,269; in Mizoram, 739; in Meghalaya, 499; in Tripura, 128; in Arunachal Pradesh, 84; and in Sikkim, the figure was 15, the lowest among all the NE states.
Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest number of HIV-related deaths in the country, totalling 32,642.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, among the newly detected cases of HIV, transmission of the virus was highest among heterosexuals, with 73.7% spread in the country in 2024-25. Among homosexual/bisexual people, the transmission rate was 5.4%; through infected needles and syringes, it was 11.5%; from mother to child, the spread was recorded at 3.5%; through blood and blood products, it was 1.2%; and through unspecified/unknown transmission, the rate was 4.7%.
It is a matter of concern that the number of people living with HIV was the highest in Assam among the NE states, with 26,109 cases in 2024-25. On the other hand, Sikkim had the lowest number of 446 people living with HIV among the NE states in that year.
The National AIDS and Control Programme (NACP) has implemented several measures to enhance prevention, early detection, safe medical practices, and access to treatment. The targeted intervention and link worker scheme projects are executed through Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) engaged by State AIDS Control Societies (SACS) through Social Contracting Mechanism under the NACP. These prevention initiatives target specific high-risk groups such as female sex workers, men who have sex with men, third gender/transgender individuals, people who inject drugs, migrants and truckers.
Besides these initiatives, awareness generation activities are conducted to improve self-risk perception and route of transmission amongst youth and other vulnerable populations. The HIV Counselling and Testing Service (HCTS) provides community-based screening for HIV, targeting the early detection and spreading of HCTS to remote areas as well as the people who seldom go for a clinical visit. New case detections are linked to free ART drugs through ART centres.
HIV screening among pregnant women is provided as part of the effort to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection.
Also Read: HIV Cases Rise Across Northeast; Assam Tops List with 26,109 Cases in 2024-25