Manipur hampered in fight against HIV/AIDS

Imphal, September 23 : Manipur has 25,655 HIV Positives reported till date since the year 1986 while number of deaths is 625 and the number of AIDS cases is 4363 in Manipur. Some seven ART centers including one private center in Churachandpur district (south Manipur) where 16000 people living with HIV have registered and more than 5000 are undergoing ART treatment, stated the project director, Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS), IAS Pradeep Kumar Jha.
He was speaking at the “One-day state level media workshop on HIV/AIDS” on Tuesday at MACS conference hall. Informing that Manipur is one of the six highest HIV/AIDS prevalence states in India, the project director of MACS said that though manpower is very low in MACS the state government is working with the assistance of more than 90 NGOs to control the spread of HIV in Manipur.
Speaking about the achievement of MACS, he said that in the last ten years the spread of HIV through injecting drug users (IDUs) have come down by 17.4%, which is considered to be a big achievement in Manipur considered to be a transit point of drugs smuggled into India from the ‘golden triangle’. The state will open four more new ART centers for which permission has already been granted by National AIDS Control organization (NACO), to enable HIV/AIDS patients to get ART treatment without having to travel long distances, said Pradeep Kumar Jha.
He disclosed that MACS is going to sponsor the “C. C. Meet” which is the biggest football tournament in Manipur, so that MACS can campaign for awareness of HIV/AIDS throughout the state. The brand ambassador of MACS, Pradeep Kumar Singh, ex-senior Mr. Manipur who is a HIV-infected person is getting a stipend of Rs 6000 per month from MACS, he added.
The media guidelines of the Press Council of India for reporting on HIV/AIDS will be translated into the local vernacular and distributed to all the local daily newspaper of the state as soon as possible for the benefit of journalists at various levels, stated the project director of MACS. The Imphal correspondent of Times of India, K. Sarojkumar Sharma spoke on “Issues and challenges faced by media in reporting issues on HIV/AIDS” and highlighted the fact that one of the main challenges faced by the local media in reporting issues on HIV/AIDS is financial constraint as a result of which the quality of reporting is wanting. Most of the local newspapers also do not have reporters for health care issues though they have reporters for other fields, he added.
The editor of local vernacular newspaper “Ireibak” Irengbam Arun Singh said that All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) will try to keep a reporter for reporting health care issues in future and urged MACS to distribute the media guidelines of PCI for reporting on HIV/AIDS as soon as possible. He also urged MACS to hold another workshop to discuss translation of the media guidelines of PCI and added that MACS should check, monitor and update their awareness program and its impact from time to time.