NEW DELHI: Manipur, in North East India, has 1347 people suffering from the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and an estimated 30,000 drug addicts.
Stating this, Manipur governor Chintamani Panigrahi said 1347 people had tested AIDS (HIV vin) positive after blood samples of about 7500 people, including many drug abusers, were analyzed, according to a state government statement.
Most of the victims, aged between 15 and 30 years, were intravenous drug pushers who were in the “high risk behavior” group, the governor, who was recently hereto attend the governor’s conference, said.
The state government and voluntary organizations had opened several de addiction and counseling centers and launched awareness campaigns to help the victims lead a normal life, Panigrahi said.
The easy availability of drugs, smuggled mainly through Myanmar, had led to such a high incidence of addiction, he said, adding that steps were being taken to beef up the administration in border areas to check drug smuggling.
The governor, who met several central leaders during his visit here to attend the governor’s conference, called for rapid industrialization of the state to absorb the growing army of unemployed, which stood at about two lakhs and was expected to cross four lakhs by 2000 A.D the statement added.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 17, 1992
