According to a recent survey conducted by Plus, an organization working for the welfare of HIV victims in Dang, the total number of HIV cases in the district has now reached 225. Among the victims, 121 are male, 82 are women and 22 children.[break]
"Current data from a survey conducted after July, 2012 shows that the number of victims this year is comparatively higher than last year," said Program Director of Dang Plus, Prakash Nepali.
The child victims are between the ages of 18 months to 15 years and 15 of them are male. Five of the children were found HIV positive in the recent survey.
According to Nepali, five of the infected children, who are studying in Kathmandu, are housed at Nabikaran Plus, and the rest are being taken cared of in Dang.
"Among the children, one is an 11th grader, another recently appeared in the SLC examination and one is in grade 9. The rests are at lower secondary level," said Nepali.
The report shows that the infants acquired the infection from their parents while unsafe physical relations have been found to be the main cause of infection among the teens, informed Chairman of Dang Plus Tilak Khadk. "Most of the children acquired the virus from parents and among the teens those mostly 14 and 15 were victims of unsafe sex," said Khadka.
Most parents of the infected children have already died.
"As of now, 92 HIV infected have died in the district and we believe the number of victims hiding their infections is also high," said Nepali. "It becomes hard for us when villagers shy away from HIV testing. Many villagers are still not ready to talk about their ailment," Nepali added.
Most locals, who usually go to Mumbai, Delhi, Madras and Goa in India in search of work, are carriers of the deadly virus which spreads in the family gradually.
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