Assam: Alarming spread of HIV/AIDS due to injecting drugs, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma flags grave concern

The total number of persons living with HIV in Assam (2023) is 32, 031 whereas the national figure is 25,44,364.

Assam has already waged a war against drugs, but it seems that despite the best efforts to curb the menace, the prevalence of narcotics has indeed reached alarming proportions. What is even a bigger cause of concern is that this has resulted in spike in HIV/AIDS cases in the state.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, under whom the crackdown on drugs has only intensified over the years, has himself expressed grave concern over the prevailing scenario.

Chief Minister Sarma has informed that 65% of the HIV+ cases detected last year, was a fallout of injecting drugs. Worth mentioning a total of 7274 HIV+ cases have been detected in Assam during the period 2023-24, the Assam Chief Minister informed.

As per data shared by Chief Minister Sarma, the HIV prevalence among the age group of 15-49 years in 2023 was 0.13% as compared to the national average of .20%.

The total number of persons living with HIV in Assam (2023) is 32, 031 whereas the national figure is 25,44,364.

What is even more alarming is that the HIV incidence rate per 1000 uninfected population in the year 2023 in Assam is 0.06% percent which is more than the national figures of 0.05%.

The annual AIDS related death in Assam in 2023 was 337 whereas in terms of the national perspective it was 35,866.

The Assam Chief Minister sharing this data in a post on social media wrote, “Recently I reviewed the prevelance of HIV/AIDS in the State and our efforts to combat this issue.
Sharing a few figures with you, of which one stark point is how 65% of the HIV+ people detected last year, contracted the disease due to injecting drugs.
Our stern efforts towards a #DrugsFreeAssam thus assumes greater significance as it is leading to severe irreversible health complications for the people.”

https://x.com/himantabiswa/status/1807053416083988561

Earlier in March this year, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to wipe out drugs menace from the nation.

The CM had further informed that in 2023 , Assam Police seized drugs worth ₹718 cr and arrested over 4,700 drug traffickers making it the most successful year for anti drugs operations in the State.

https://x.com/himantabiswa/status/1764197087225557322

According to the World Bank, “Injecting Drug Use (IDU): Injecting drugs with contaminated injecting equipment is the main risk factor for HIV infection in the north‐east (especially in the states of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland), and features increasingly in the epidemics of major cities elsewhere, including in Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi (MAP, 2005; NACO, 2005) and in the state of Punjab.

Products injected include legal pharmaceuticals (e.g. buprenorphine, pentazocine and diazepam), in addition to heroin. Current interventions targeting IDU tend to be inconsistent, and too small and infrequent to yield demonstrable results.

Comprehensive harm reduction programs, including clean needle and syringe exchange and opioid substitution therapy (OST) need to be extended and expanded as a matter of urgency in those parts of India with serious drug injecting‐related HIV epidemics. The recent data from HSS 2010 shows that Delhi, Manipur and Mizoram have reported more than 10% HIV prevalence among IDUs.”

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/07/10/hiv-aids-india#:~:text=Injecting%20Drug%20Use%20(IDU)%3A,Mumbai%20and%20New%20Delhi%20(MAP%2C

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