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Ganjam is Orissa's AIDS hot spot

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

Ganjam district in coastal Orissa, which is yet to recover from the devastation caused by the super cyclone, has now been declared an AIDS hot spot.

There are 250 AIDS victims here, mostly young men between 20 and 40, who worked as daily wage labourers in Bombay, Vishakhpatnam and Surat. Of them 12 have been diagnosed as carrying HIV-2 virus , considered the deadliest. Nowhere else in the state has anyone tested HIV-2 positive.

Between 1994 and 1999 the microbiology department of the MKCG Medical College in Berhampur sent 8000 blood samples from Ganjam district for tests to Calcutta. Of these, 250 tested positive.

With the fear of AIDS now firmly entrenched in the district, many private clinics have begun fleecing patients. These clinics diagnose patients as HIV infected by carrying out just a spot test or Capillus test and then charge Rs 15,000 to 20,000 for ''treatment''.

"These two tests are not the final word. After this there is the Elisa Test and finally the Western Blot Test. The spot tests are only screening tests which show AIDS related complex. It may take 10 to 15 years for the disease to take hold,'' said Dr Sunil K Mohanty of the MKCG Medical College.

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