Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
AIDS will spread like ‘bushfire’ in India: UN
Share:
by Sanjay Jha | November 13, 2008 at 04:20 am
137 views | 12 Recommendations | 3 comments
Photos
India has one of the highest HIV/AIDS patients base and the United States National Intelligence Council predicts that the number of people infected in India could jump to between 20 million and 25 million by 2010. The current spike is due to the increase in the number of intravenous drug users and the UN has threatened that unless the drug users number is checked Aids will spread like bushfire.
HIV/AIDS infections will spread like ‘bushfire’ in parts of India if the country fails to check a spike in the number of intravenous drug users, the United Nations AIDS agency said on Thursday.India has the world's third highest caseload with 2.5 million infections. It has an estimated 200,000 intravenous drug users, many of whom are in the remote northeast region which borders the opium-producing Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.
"If we don't prevent new infections in new emerging populations like injecting drug users, it can go up as bushfires. We may see a major surge in infections," Peter Piot, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said.
He also raised concerns about the spread of drugs in India. "Drug use is moving a bit everywhere, we can see it in Bihar, UP and in Kashmir, it is kind of moving across the northern part of the country," Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS said.
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Most Recommended Stories in World
Recommendations (12)
Paschen
Narita, Chiba, Japan
gerrypopplestone
London and elsewhere, United KingdomRhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 04:44 on November 13th, 2008
Unfortunate, Sanjay. Thanks for this story.
at 04:54 on November 13th, 2008
Yeah, it's an important post. I'm always horrified by the stories of truck drivers in India and their (very inexpensive) sexual encounters with sex workers! Changing attidtudes sounds enormously difficult although the storyis pretty good, thanks to the imaginative work of Mechai (which has now become the slang word for condoms. He used to traverl on buses and conduct education sessions aboard the buses! It can be done! But it needs good, seriouys support right at the top. I remember reading that, the Health Secretary under Thatcher has absolutely no idea what young people were up to at times. A phrase that is commonly used by young people, he naively though meant something quite different! Can't give you the phrase on NowPublic!
at 05:05 on November 13th, 2008
Lets hope the UN will be wrong on that one.