"A true AIDS epidemic is not a future possibility for Maharashtra; it is a present reality”, warns a pamphlet brought out by an NGO fighting against the spread of HIV. And this is not an alarmist tirade. In the last three years, Maharashtra has registered the largest number of new AIDS cases in India. The 98,578 fresh cases registered in the state since 2007 make up 23%—almost a quarter—of the 4,19,982 AIDS patients registered across the country.
Maharashtra was one of the earliest states in India where the disease manifested itself, registering its first AIDS case in Mumbai, in 1986. Lack of awareness, a large migrant population and a thriving sex trade have made it extremely difficult to combat the spread of HIV in the state. The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) has drawn up a list of 49 districts in India with a "high prevalence" of HIV/AIDS, of which 14 are in Maharashtra.
According to a study conducted by Population Foundation of India, a Delhi-based NGO funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, workers in the hotel and tourism industry had the highest HIV prevalence among groups tested in the state, followed by drivers and the unemployed. Truck drivers, who travel long distances, brought the infection with them, often to areas where the disease had not yet penetrated.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Maharashtra-has-most-new-AIDS-cases-in-India/articleshow/5785847.cms
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