Ludhiana: The prevalence of injecting drug use among HIV positive patients has emerged as serious cause for concern in the city. The number of HIV positive patients seeking medical care at Ludhiana’s main government-run Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre has increased over the last few years, with injecting drug users (IDUs) comprising most of the cases, says data from the main ART centre.
The number of new HIV infected patients who registered at the ART centre in the Civil Hospital in the financial year April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, was around 915 whereas the number of such patients registering at the same centre increased to 1,320 between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. Data suggests that in the recent financial year, between April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, the number of new HIV patients registered at the ART centre was about 1,935. The number of new HIV patients registered at the centre is 46.6 per cent more as compared to the previous financial year.
Meanwhile, data of IDU users who are HIV positive for the last three financial years suggests that the percentage of new IDU users among newly registered HIV positive patients in the financial year April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 was 45.3 per cent, which increased to 71.0 per cent in the financial year April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. This means that the percentage of IDU users among the new HIV patients registered at the ART centre has increased by around 25 per cent in the last three financial years.
SMO ART centre at Civil Hospital, Dr Shabnam Bansal said that IDU users do comprise majority of the newly-registered HIV patients at the centre. She added that they are tested at 12 integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTCs) in the district and after they test positive for HIV, they are registered at the ART centre, where various tests are conducted, and they are given life-saving medicines to be taken throughout life.
Health officials said that viral load is checked after six months among high-risk patients whereas in case of normal patients, it is checked after a year. This is done to check whether the patient is stable or is showing improvement or deterioration.
A woman counsellor at the ART centre said that after patients test HIV positive, they are informed about ways to live longer with the disease by taking precautions. Citing a success case, she said that they have a patient who was diagnosed HIV positive in 2009 and is stable.
According to the counsellor, the male to female ratio among new patients testing HIV positive is around one to three. She added that in the recent financial year, of about 1,935 newly-registered HIV cases, about 235 are Serodiscordant couples (a couple in which one partner is HIV positive and the other is HIV negative), around 10 are MSM (Men who have sex with men) and around six are female sex workers. Another official at the ART centre said many patients who are HIV positive also suffer from pneumonia because of weak immunity.
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