The status of HIV/AIDS epidemic in north-eastern states of India is indeed alarming, said a report by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

The AIDS-related mortality per 1,00,000 population in India was estimated to be the highest in Manipur (36.86), followed by Mizoram (28.34), Nagaland (26.20), Andhra Pradesh (21.76), Puducherry (15.33), Meghalaya (11.08) and Telangana (10.79), the NACO report added.

Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Joint Secretary, Alok Saxena, in his observation, incorporated in the recent NACO report, said evidence has emerged globally that HIV-infected people are more at Covid-19 death risk as compared to HIV-negative patients.

"The challenges for the National AIDS Control Programme have multiplied with the Covid-19 pandemic," Saxena added in the NACO report available with IANS.

In another disturbing development, the trend of Intravenous Drug Users (IDU) is rising at a rocket speed among the youth between 15 and 20 years in several north-eastern states, especially in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland.

"The IDU or the HIV/AIDS prevalence are now a major public health problem instead of a simple health issue. To check the rapidly rising trend, we are robustly working with other 11 departments of Tripura government, including Education, Social Education and Welfare, Sports. Police," Tripura state AIDS Control Society's Project Director Phanindra Kumar Majumder told IANS.

According to the Excise and Narcotics Department officials from Mizoram, nearly 1,645 people have died of drug abuse in the state since 1984 when the first case was reported.

"Sharing of a common syringe by injecting drug users is a key reason for Mizoram becoming one of the leading states of HIV/AIDS prevalent in India, registering an average of five to six HIV positive cases a day," an Excise and Narcotics Department official on condition of anonymity told IANS.

Besides, Mizoram with 2.04 per cent, in two other north-eastern states Manipur and Nagaland, the HIV prevalence rates are 1.43 per cent and 1.15 per cent per one million people, respectively.

Mizoram recorded more than 20,000 HIV positive cases and nearly 2,000 deaths since the first case in 1990. Smuggling of drugs, arms and other contraband worth thousands of crores takes place frequently in the north-eastern region from across the borders, especially from Myanmar.

Officials said the drugs were smuggled from Myanmar which shares 1,643 km of unfenced border with four north-eastern states -- Mizoram (510 km), Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km) and Nagaland (215 km).

The drugs mainly the Methamphetamine tablets (also called Yaba tablet or party tablet) contain a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine and are misused as high-dosage drugs in Bangladesh and neighbouring countries, besides India.

A recent 100-page study report submitted to Mizoram state AIDS Control Society said the drugs and substance abuse problem in Mizo society probably started as a spill over of international drug trafficking.

"Mizoram shares two long international borders, one with Myanmar and the "Golden Triangle" in the east and with Bangladesh in the west. The geographical location of the state provides an easy route for trafficking of heroin.

Being adjacent to the "Golden Triangle", Mizoram is one of the drug trafficking routes from the Golden Triangle to India and elsewhere. Drug abuse has become a rampant problem among the youth with the initial drug abuse of heroin.

The 100-page NACO report said nationally HIV incidence was estimated at 0.05 per 1,000 uninfected population in 2019. It had declined from 0.54 in 1995 to 0.05 in 2019.

(IANS)