There are 5,580 AIDS patients registered in Uttarakhand at present and the HIV infection rate in the state has been reduced to 0.24 per cent, Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat said on Thursday. He was speaking at an awareness rally at the Gandhi Park here on the occasion of World AIDS Day. Rawat said these patients are being treated at seven Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres in the state.
They are being provided free consultation and medicines by the state government, he said.
About 1.5 lakh people were screened for HIV infection in 2015 while this year the number of people screened for HIV infection has shot up to 3.5 lakh, Rawat said.
About 900 HIV patients are being registered every year in the state, he said.
As in case of tuberculosis, programmes are being held from district to block level to create awareness about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the minister added.
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