City tops in checking HIV prevalance

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 16

The city has emerged as the top performer under the National AIDS Control Programme.

Addressing the gathering at the National Conference on HIV/AIDS held at the IMA auditorium here today, Dr Vanita Gupta said while the national average of AIDS prevalence stood at 0.25 per cent, Chandigarh saw prevalence of the disease dropping to 0.08 per cent.

She said from April 1 last year to January 31 this year, HIV tests were conducted on as many as 25,377 pregnant women and only 21 of them were reported positive.

A total of 66,255 persons were tested for HIV and 544 of them were found carrying the virus. 

Chandigarh also showed a remarkable performance in the terms of early infant diagnosis (EID).

Dr Vanita said 42 children were born from HIV-positive women but all of them tested negative for the virus.

Earlier, UT Health Secretary Anurag Aggarwal inaugurated the conference. He congratulated NACO and the Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society for their efforts in bringing down the HIV prevalance.

Naresh Goel, Deputy Director General, NACO, Dr Nicole Seguy, team leader, communicable diseases, WHO, Dr Savina, senior strategic information adviser, UNAIDS, and Dr Bitra George country director, UNAIDS, were present on the occasion.