Malsawmdawnga, secretary of Mizoram People Living With HIV Group, an NGO, said their attempts to set up a short stay home (SSH) for HIV-positive people from the rural areas at the ART centre here had been blocked so far by locality authorities. "This is discrimination against people like me," he said.
Echoing the appeal, the state minister emphasised that churches, village authorities and society in general should embrace HIV-positive people without fear, should not stigmatise them and should support them in every way. Without this, there is no way to tackle the menace, he said.
The number of HIV-positive people may be declining from the epidemic proportions a few years ago in the state, but the appearance of the dreaded virus in "general" population blood samples is alarming, said Dr Lalchhandama Ralte of Grace Home, a care-giving facility for such patients.
A study by Mizoram University, sponsored by Mizoram State AIDS Control Society, found that 70 per cent of the patients contracted the disease through sex.
"Earlier people thought that only the so-called high risk group (HRG) needed to be targeted but we, who are involved in this work, know for sure that the virus is spreading in the so-called normal society," Ralte said at a function to observe Worlds AIDS Day.
HRGs (intravenous drug users, commercial sex workers, etc) have been replaced by high-risk behaviour in the state, he warned. The sign that men are indulging in high-risk behaviour is the increasing percentage of pregnant HIV-positive women.
The total number of HIV-positive people registered in the three ART centres of Aizawl, Champhai and Lunglei is 5,628, while those opting for treatment is only 1,889.