Mizoram, 1st November: With the theme ‘Painting the Town red Campaign’, the World AIDS Day was observed in Mizoram by the Mizoram State AIDS Control Society at Dawrpui Multipurpose Hall in Aizawl on Tuesday.
Chief Guest of the program State Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr H. Lalthangliana stressed the need to fight against HIV/AIDS and called on the government, church, NGOs, and medical experts and people to spread a massive awareness campaign among the masses.
Health Minister said that “the world is facing tough challenges as the state also needs to focus on fighting Covid-19. He also said that the people of Mizoram, the NGO are co-operating with the government in fighting Covid-19 in the state, he also hopes that the state can practice co-operation to tackle HIV/AIDS in the state of Mizoram. He further states that everyone is important to fight HIV/AIDS and should aware of others.”
He called on experts in the field of HIV/AIDS to conduct an in-depth study of the reason why Mizoram is the state with the highest HIV prevalence.
“A new prevention and awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS needs to be taken up since the spread of this deadly disease has accelerated at an alarming rate,” Minister added.
Data compiled by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) in 2019 with the age group of 15-49 (Adult HIV Prevalence) on World AIDS Day showed that 2.32% of Mizoram’s population is found to be HIV positive against the national average of 0.22%. This puts the state with the highest record of HIV prevalence was followed by Nagaland (1.45%) and Manipur (1.18%).
The other north eastern states percentages are – Meghalaya 0.54% ,Sikkim (0.07%), Arunachal (0.06%), Assam (0.09%), Tripura (0.10%).
