Dr Rajesh (right) briefs the delegates during workshop on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, at the UT guesthouse in Chandigarh on Thursday. Kamleshwar Singh
Expressing concern regarding the rising number of addicts using intravenous drugs in the region, the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM) presented its study on Thursday.
As per the comparative study conducted in north-east and north-west parts of the country in 2009, the menace is spreading fast in Punjab, Chandigarh and Jammu, recording a high percentage of drug users who are HIV positive. The areas included in the north-west region were Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. The north-eastern region included Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur.
Rajesh Kumar, institutional director of SPYM Delhi, said the north-west cities were found to have a higher percentage of HIV positive intravenous drug users (IDUs), with Punjab having 13.8 per cent of the infected people and Chandigarh 17.6 per cent. “Many IDUs in the country are married, which makes their spouses vulnerable to the virus. The burden of drug use by men on their wives and children in India has not been studied adequately,” he said.
As many as 55 people from Chandigarh, Jammu and Patiala were taken as sample for the survey and the following criteria was used: Recruitment (husband an IDU and his wife), consent (from the participants) and then a referral to various services (like HIV testing).
According to a demographic survey, HIV-infected men in the cities were generally in the age group of 24 to 52 years in north-east region and between 20 to 56 years in north-west. Most infected IDUs were either self-employed or skilled workers.
Of them, only 66 per cent from north-west knew about the spread of HIV virus through sharing of contaminated needles, as compared to 97 per cent from north-east .
“Counselling plays an important role in strengthening the will power of IDUs. Thus, the SPYM now plans to have more targeted interventions. One such step is the oral substitution therapy, under which the IDUs are encouraged to use smaller quantities of legal drugs and the use is finally tapered down to nil,” said Kumar.