In an alarming state of affairs, as many as 477 new HIV-positive cases have been reported in the last 15 months in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region.
Most of the patients are men while eight are children who seem to have got the virus from their mothers, said nodal officer of the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centre at the hospital, Dr Vaibhav Kumar, The Indian Express reported. Thirty-eight of these cases involved individuals from the prison system.
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According to data from the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centre at Dr. Sushila Tiwari Government Hospital (STH) in Haldwani, 477 new HIV-positive cases were registered between January 2024 and March 2025āaveraging around five new patients every day and 43 in the last month alone.
“Sharing of syringes by men addicted to drugs is one of the primary causes of this spike,” Dr Kumar said, adding that fear of ostracisation makes it harder to get patients to register.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system and is primarily transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing needles, or from mother to child during childbirth or breastfeeding. While there is no cure, HIV can be managed with antiretroviral therapy (ART).
