CHENNAI: In 2017, 236 children below 18 years tested positive for HIV in the state, registering a near 25% decline in two years. While the number remains a concern for officials, what is worrying them even more is that they could not establish the source of the disease in 32 children, an increase of 10. This has led officials to believe that more children are engaging in highrisk sexual behavior or are victims of abuse.
In 2015, of the 311 children who tested positive for HIV/ AIDS in the state, 289 contracted the infection from their HIV-infected mothers during pregnancy, labour or breastfeeding. Officials couldn’t establish the source of the infection in 22 children. Two years later, the number of parent-to-child transmission dipped along with the number of new cases detected among children, but the number of unaccounted cases touched 32, show data furnished by
Tamil Nadu State Aids Control Society in response to an RTI application by TOI.
Officials and doctors say they suspect the mode of transmission of the infection among these children to be sexual as the increase is corroborated by an uptick in the number of children referred to government-run clinics for sexually transmitted infections. The number went up from 6,234 in 2015 to 8,871last year.
Recognising the growing prevalence of STIs among children, TANSACS project director K Senthil Raj said he is in talks with the school education secretary to dedicate more space to sex education in the soon-to-be-introduced revamped textbooks.
Children could have acquired HIV through transfusion, says official
He said staff at the integrated counselling and testing centers (ICTC) for HIV usually maintain a record of children with the infection, including those who haven’t got it from infected mothers. “They usually don’t probe. But if they do find the reason during the counselling, they maintain it in their notebooks,” he said. Some of the children, he said, could have acquired it through blood transfusion or injectable drugs.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr M Suresh Kumar, who has worked extensively with injection drug users, rules out this possibility. “Heroin and other synthetic injectable opioids were popular till the late 90s. We haven’t been seeing young heroin addicts in a while,” saidDr Kumar.Hisobservation is backed by official data: Of the 1.43 lakh people living withHIVin TNcovered under the central-sponsored prevention programme, 56 are users of injectibles. All are in their 40s and above. Dr Kumar saidthey are,however, seeing other kinds of addictions, including marijuana and alcohol,on the rise among youngsters. “It is known that high drug use can make you vulnerable to engaging in high-risksexualbehavior,” he noted.
HIV specialist Dr S Sundar observed that the state should expand its HIV/AIDS prevention programme to youngsters who aren’t part of the traditional “high-risk” group. “All our programmes are targeted at the high-risk population like female sex workers, transgenders, men who have sex with men and truck drivers. But ask a counsellor at an ICTC who he or sheseesthe most–itisusually people who are not part of this group,” hesaid. “Children are engaging in sexual activity belowthelegal ageof consent. It is a fact. They could be in a situation where nobody will even ask for consent,” added Sundar.
Whatever be the source, once diagnosed, these children are forced to battle the stigma associated with the infection or live in the fear that someone may find out they are positive, said P Manorama, former chairperson of Child Welfare Committee, Chennai, who runs an organisation that works with children withHIV. Shesaidshe receives at least one child trafficking victim a year who tests positivefor HIVlinkedto sexualexploitation. “Butthey remain mere names in the state’s medical records. Officials don’t investigate further,” saidManorama, adding that TANSACS should coordinate with other departments to tackle these cases.
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