GUWAHATI, Dec 10 (PTI): Though Assam is not a high AIDS-prevalent State till now, it can very well acquire the status considering its position surrounded by Nagaland and Manipur where the dreaded disease has spread its tentacles wide.
Being the gateway to the Northeast, Assam is visited daily by a rainbow crowd of migrant workers, truck drivers, and tourists from all over the region, making it highly susceptible to the spread of the disease.
Often this floating population, a lot of them from Nagaland and Manipur, engage in unsafe sexual practices during their temporary stay.
According to the Assam State AIDS Control Society, the State receives a very large number of trucks from outside every day and these long-distance drivers come in contact with sex workers.
''Moreover, the region's easy access to drugs due to its close proximity to the heroin-producing Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand contributes to the spread of the deadly disease,'' the ASACS said.
The ASACS will shortly implement the third phase of the National Aids Control Programme after successfully conducting the first two, it said.
Migration from outside the state in view of the large demand for manual labour in development projects is high and these migrants have been found to exhibit 'risky sexual behaviour', it said.
On the brighter side of things, there is a very low incidence of the disease among adults in the State with only 0.3 per cent of the population being affected.
Only 4,800 females are affected by the disease - either HIV or full-blown AIDS, while the number among males is 1205.
Under the third phase, the society's main goal will be to halt and reverse the spread of the disease by the year 2012, a release of the AIDS Control Society said.
The society said the postivity rate per thousand was 24.1 in 2006 and this year till September 10 it came down to 7.5.
As many as 958 HIV-positive cases were detected in 2009 while 798 cases were found till September 10, this year.
To implement the AIDS control programme, the society has targetted 59 intervention projects which will be run by NGOs among the high risk groups in different districts of the state.
For care of the HIV/AIDS patients, three community centres are also functioning in the State, it said.
