Berhampur: The implementation of the EMTCT programme in Ganjam district has proved to be a boon for the foetus in pregnant women affected by AIDS. Till now, since 2008, a total of 1,017 AIDS-affected pregnant women have been identified in the district, sources said Tuesday.
The programme, ‘Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) has helped reduce the transfer of the disease to the child in the womb. Sources informed that a number of measures are being taken by the Centre, Odisha government and various private agencies to combat the dreaded disease from spreading. Awareness programmes are being conducted at regular intervals so that people do not fall prey to the disease and AIDS-hit persons are not deemed outcasts in the district.
However, people continue to behave weirdly with AIDS-affected persons due to the stigma attached to the disease. A woman, when she becomes pregnant after being afflicted with AIDS also endangers the child developing in her womb. It is in these cases that EMTCT has proved to be a lifeline, officials said.
The new treatment method has now turned out to be a lifeline for the yet-to-be-born. The number of AIDS-infected newborn babies is slowly but surely decreasing in the district, officials pointed out.
Officials said that a total of 1,017 HIV-hit women have become pregnant from 2008 to December 2023 in Ganjam district. A total of 21 pregnant women were found HIV positive in 2023. The figures stood at 27 (in 2022), 33 (in 2021), 37 (in 2020), 38 (in 2019) and 28 (in 2018). These HIV-affected pregnant women are being provided free treatment and medicines by the district AIDS Cell.
Officials pointed out that males affected with the disease are transmitting the disease to women as they are ignorant and have not been provided with proper sex education.
“Most of the women infected by AIDS are because of sex without protection. Men lack knowledge about the disease and transmit it to their spouses as they do not take proper precautions,” an official pointed out.
“After the women become pregnant, they unwittingly transmit the disease to the foetus,” he added.
The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), a division under the Union Health and Family Welfare Department has taken various measures to fight AIDS. The Odisha AIDS Control Society which functions under NACO is providing treatment and medicines to the infected women, free of cost, district cell officer Hemant Kumar Dash, informed.
Any pregnant woman testing positive for AIDS is provided free medicines for six months. The chances of the child contracting AIDS becomes less than five per cent if the pregnant woman has properly taken the medicines, he added.
The rate of HIV positives is reducing in the district due to increasing awareness among the people while all women are being urged to undergo HIV tests after becoming pregnant. The HIV test is available free of cost in all government hospitals, he added.
PNN