Fall in number of people diagnosed with HIV in last 3 years: Health minister

There was an overall decrease in the number of persons diagnosed with AIDS in the country in the last three years, even as a few states had witnessed the emergence of "new hotspots" of HIV, Parliament was informed today.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura had seen the emergence of such "hotspots" due to "high risk" behaviour among injecting drug users (IDUs) and unsafe sexual practices.

"There is a decrease in the number of HIV patients diagnosed during the last three years," he said.

According to the data shared by the minister, 2,00,465 people were diagnosed with HIV in 2015-16, 1,93,195 in 2016-17 and 1,90,763 in 2017-18.

In all the three years, Maharashtra reported the maximum number of cases with 28,030 people diagnosed with HIV in the state in 2017-18.

For Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura, the government has identified the high HIV prevalence pockets affecting pregnant women and high-risk groups (female sex workers and IDUs), according to the data.