The government on Tuesday said that the number of AIDS related deaths in the country has reduced by 54% between 2007 and 2015.
“The number of AIDS related deaths has reduced by 54 per cent from 2007 to 2015. As on October, 2016, 21,406 and 1,636 Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) and Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres respectively have been established in the country. There are 12.2 lakh PLHIV in active care, out of which 9.97 lakh are on ART,” Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
In addition, the programme is focusing on elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV. All pregnant women are being offered services for HIV testing and those who are HIV positive are being given preventive therapy.
The minister said that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country is driven through key populations and as on date 1502 Targeted Interventions programme provides services to this key population which includes female sex workers, men having sex with men, transgender and injecting drug users.
