After two successive years of decline in new HIV cases, in a reversal of the trend Odisha has posted a rise in the number of new HIV patients diagnosed in year 2016-17.
The lethal fact is that with Odisha recording over two HIV deaths per day, the HIV mortalities in 2016-17 reached an all-time high of 813. Year 2016-17 alone accounted a whopping 46 per cent of the State’s total HIV deaths since detection of the first case.
Significantly, when country has recorded a nearly 3.5 per cent fall in new HIV patients diagnosed in 2016-17, the worry is Odisha has posted a 5-per cent rise to figure among top-15 States in the country. Odisha has accounted for nearly 1.8 per cent of the country’s new HIV cases in 2016-17.
According to data available with State AIDS Cell, the State has reported 3,432 new HIV cases in 2016-17. Noteworthy is that the new cases diagnosed in 2014-15 and 2015-16 were 3,317 and 3,260, respectively. Moreover, in year 2017-18, Odisha has detected 811 more new HIV cases till June-end. In contrast, the national data available with the NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation) showed a drop in new HIV patients detected in the country in 2016-17 to around 1.93 lakh from over 2.02 lakh in 2015-16.
Significantly, NACO data suggested a drop in detection of new cases in almost all high-risk States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat.
It needs mentioning that Odisha has already a whopping 15,912 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in active care by the end of 2016. And till date, the HIV mortalities in the State have crossed the 1,755 -mark.
As per the State AIDS Cell, the rise in positives have mostly come from
districts like Koraput, Malkangiri, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Gajapati,
Ganjam, Keonjhar and Sundargarh. While in Koraput and Malkangiri more positives were detected among females; in most other districts male positives have shown a rise in 2016-17.
The districts which have shown a rising trend in HIV positives are also the districts that have poorest accessibility to healthcare, and how such glitches are aiding HIV positives have well been explained in this year’s theme of ‘“My Right to Health and Everybody Counts”.
Notably, the ICMR report on disease burden in States-2017 has documented well the lethality of HIV in Odisha as it identified HIV along with TB as the 2nd most cause of death in the State’s productive age-group of 15-39 years in 2016. HIV and TB deaths figured as the 4th-most contributor to the mortalities in age-group of 40-69 years. Among all age-groups, HIV and TB-led death is the least only in 0-14 years, the report revealed.
The ICMR report has also listed HIV among the top-15 causes that resulted in years of life lost following premature death. Males’ years of life lost due to HIV death in Odisha are marginally higher than females. In the first two months of year 2017-18, a total of 104 deaths have been reported in Odisha, the data revealed.