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AIDS control: Manipur shows the way

Sify has an article AIDS control: Manipur shows the way, telling how Manipur succeeded in making a tremendous progress in controlling AIDS and how it is a model for the rest of the country.

It’s, at best, mixed news for those at the forefront of the fight against AIDS in the northeastern states of India.
If the latest figures released by the Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS) are anything to go by, while the state now has the highest concentration of HIV infected people in the country, at a probable 0.16 per cent of the population, intervention measures adopted by various government and non-governmental organisations to check the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users (IDUs)-the most high risk group - finally seem to be paying off. The infection rate among IDUs continues to show a steady fall since 1997.

The prevalence of the epidemic is only the most visible part in Manipur’s AIDS scenario. What makes the state unique is the fact that bulk of the transmission takes place through IDUs. While in other states of India, HIV transmission is taking place through ‘unwanted sexual activities.’ Women & AIDS

According to the MACS’s latest epidemiological report, which contains data between 1986 and April 2003, the rate of infection among the state’s IDUs has shown a definitive fall to 58.76 per cent from a high of 76.9 in 1997.

The credit goes to Needle and Syringe Exchange programme (NSEP), once considered as the most controversial of all intervention measures so far applied in the state to tackle increasing transmission of the virus.

The programme is aimed to prevent transmission of the virus from one IDU to another through sharing of needles and syringes, a general practice among this high risk group.

The programme was first introduced in 1995 as a pilot project in Churachandpur district in southern Manipur, by an NGO called SHALOM. Under this program, sterile needles and syringes are being supplied to the drug addicts in exchange of the old ones.

The International Journal of Drug Policy in its study on the NSEP on the World AIDS Day last year said that levels of HIV infection had decreased in places with Needle and Exchange Programme, but infection increased in places without the programme.

The journal also conducted a study on Manipur which said that the NSEP programme has helped in reducing the spread of HIV in the state.

Now nearly 12 local NGOs have been directly involved in the programme with the help from funds provided by national and international agencies.

Dr K. S. Lisam, project director, MACS said, “Without the NSEP, it would be very difficult to check the transmission of the virus in a state like Manipur, which is located on the fringe of the infamous drug destination of the ‘Golden Triangle’ on the Indo-Myanmar border. We have observed a steady decline in HIV sero-positive rate since 1997.”

One of the major causes for the success of the programme is the support it received from the IDUs.

However, the unique programme is facing some problems in the state. The most common deterrent to the programme is frequent crackdown by the law enforcement agencies. Police often pick up AIDS workers for possessing needle and syringes. The workers also have to face the ire of the people as well as insurgents who perceived them as drug peddlers.

Posted by Ramdhan Yadav at December 3, 2004 02:27 PM Perma Link