Two health screening camps in Tinsukia and Cachar districts in the last 15 days have brought to light about 100 HIV cases and the number is set to go up further. The screening was done by ASACS, district health authorities and district administration, to detect hidden HIV-positive cases, especially in the districts amid concerns of a rise in the number of such cases post-Covid.
“In Tinsukia, 84 persons have been newly identified as HIV positive out of 617 persons who were screened in the last 13 days.In Cachar, 14 persons have been identified as HIV positive among 112 screened in the last two days after the camp was inaugurated on February 22,” a senior official of Assam State AIDS Control Society told TOI, on Saturday.
This has been a new approach to detecting HIV-positive cases by conducting integrated health camps at the block level and letting the infected patients know their HIV status.
The success of the first-of-its-kind camp in Nagaon district last year – in which over 600 cases were detected in 110 camps – inspired them to conduct the second and third camps in Tinsukia and Cachar district this month. The target has been to detect HIV and related infections with the identification of hepatitis B, C, syphilis and TB cases.
Sources said most of the newly detected HIV patients are drug users, though female sex workers and the general population have also been screened. “Majority of the HIV infected are in their productive age, below 40 years. Many of them became drug users during and after the Covid as they met drug users who returned to the state during the pandemic,” said a source.
“The camps are being organised in areas based on positivity records and high-risk populations. In Margherita and Tinsukia town areas in Tinsukia district, the main focus was in urban and suburban areas,” sources said. ASACS officials said the next such integrated camp would come up in Kamrup (Metro) district soon.
The newly detected HIV patients have been connected with antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres.