Ludhiana has now got a dubious distinction of being among the cities most severely affected by AIDS, with the city having been placed under “A” category of HIV positive. This was revealed by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) recently during a seminar organised by Delhi State AIDS Control Society.

Disclosing this, Jagjit Singh Maan, founder president of Punjab Networking of Positive People Society (a non-government organization) said, “NACO has also stated this in its guidelines issued to Integrated Counselling Testing Centres. Earlier, it was only Amritsar from Punjab which was under A category, but now Ludhiana also figures in the list due to increased number of HIV positive people.”

Talking to The Indian Express, Maan said, “Lack of awareness among people and the government’s indifference to the affected people has brought the city under “A’ category. Our NGO has been serving in Punjab for the last four years, but still many HIV positive people are not aware of this and are still running after quacks. A few weeks ago, I met a family at Issaru village of Ludhiana district where two people had died due to AIDS. Their third member is also HIV positive. I requested them to go for anti retro viral therapy but they did not agree and opted for a wrong therapy.”

The government’s apathy to the problem nIt needs to be mentioned here that two years ago, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in cooperation with Department of Health and National AIDS Control Organization, had appointed 16 out-reach workers in Ludhiana and Amritsar districts. All these 16 were HIV positive people and were appointed in local hospitals and their work was to keep track of the HIV positive people — by visiting them at hospitals or at their homes. But now these 16 out-reach workers have been issued the notices telling them that their services were being terminated from November 30, 2009.

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