CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday reaffirmed the State’s commitment to eliminating new HIV/AIDS infections by 2030, declaring that the State’s sustained, decades-long campaign against the virus has placed it ahead of the national curve.

Marking World AIDS Day 2025 on December 1, the Chief Minister recalled that Tamil Nadu has travelled a long and successful 39-year journey since the State recorded India’s first HIV case in Chennai in 1986. Through consistent interventions by the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) in collaboration with non-governmental organisations, the State has slashed HIV prevalence from 1.11 per cent in 2002 to 0.16 per cent in 2023-24, well below the national average of 0.23%.

Stalin highlighted this year’s global theme, “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response”, and said that achieving the 2030 goal required renewed strategies to mitigate emerging risks in a changing world.

Tamil Nadu currently operates 2,600 integrated counselling and testing centres, along with 81 anti-retroviral therapy centres and 172 link ART units. All pregnant women are screened for HIV and syphilis to prevent mother-to-child transmission, the Chief Minister noted.

The State also partners with 87 NGOs to implement targeted programmes for high-risk groups in urban areas. A monthly assistance of Rs 1,000 is being provided to 7,618 HIV-affected and infected children for nutrition, education and healthcare.

Stalin urged citizens to treat people living with HIV with dignity, equality and compassion, without discrimination or exclusion, as Tamil Nadu strives to achieve a future free of new HIV/AIDS infections.