Lead story: Needle sharing leads to 25% spike in HIV cases

Ludhiana district has witnessed an increase in the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive patients and data of the past four years suggests that a majority of the patients contracting HIV are injecting drug users (IDUs).

People contracting HIV due to the use of infected needles and syringes is on the rise and this has witnessed nearly 25 per cent increase in the number of intravenous drug users (IDUs) in the past years and their numbers have been the highest from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024.

Data compiled by District’s Anti Retroviral Therapy Centre (ARTC) at the Civil Hospital revealed that out of the total new registrations at the ART Centre, the number of IDUs ranged between 50 and 70 per cent.

In the financial year 2020-2021, new registrations at the ARTC were 926 and out of these, 488 were IDUs (52.6%). In the financial year 2021-2022, new registrations were 1,320 and 807 (61.1%) were IDUs from these. In the financial year 2022-23, the total new registrations were 1,937 and 1,333 (68.8%) were IDUs out of the total registrations. The financial year, 2023-24, saw 1966 new registrations and out of these, 1,459 (74.2%) were the IDUs.

The highest number of new HIV cases were registered in the year 2023-24 (1966) and the lowest in the year 2020-21 (926). The percentage of the IDUs has been increasing with each financial year. From 52.6 per cent in 2020-21 to 74.2 per cent in the last financial year in 2023-24.

Senior Medical Officer of ART Centre, Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, Dr Harinder Sood, said the data indicated that drug addicts were possibly sharing needles to inject themselves. The viral load of the patients was checked every six months to one year at the ART centre depending upon the condition of the patient. The suspected patients are first tested at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTCs) and if they test HIV positive, they are registered at ART Centre where they are given lifelong medication.

In Ludhiana district, there is one ART Centre located at the Civil Hospital and other two are at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and Christian Medical College and Hospital. The main ART Centre daily receives 350-400 patients.

Dr Inderjit Singh, who runs an NGO for HIV patients, said the number of IDUs is on the rise for the past years. Needles are provided free of cost to the drug users, but many of them they continue sharing needles. It also points out that injectable drugs are easily available to the addicts, that is the reason why the number of the IDUs is on the rise.

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