Drug abuse, cause of high rate of HIV virus transmission, in Manipur

Mumbai, December 22: The All Manipur Anti-Drug Association, involved in awareness and prevention activities of HIV/AIDS has reportedly taken to the stage to educate the people of Manipur about the deadly disease. Manipur is placed sixth in the list of states in the country, with HIV positive people. With 0.2 percent of the country's total population, Manipur has nearly 8 percent of total HIV positive cases. Drug abuse through injection has been the predominant mode of transmission of the HIV virus infection; evidence points out that now HIV/AIDS has spread to the wives and children of injection drug users (IDUs), and thereby into the general population. The reason why drug usage is high in the state is because Manipur shares a 358-kilometer border with Myanmar, the center of drug trafficking. Drug trade that takes place in the region smuggles high quality heroin into Manipur, which is the choicest drug for most of the state’s IDUs. Manipur’s geographical vicinity to Myanmar and the ‘Golden Triangle,’ the area where Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos converge, and where heroin is refined in mass amounts and sent out to neighboring areas, is responsible for the thriving drug trade, and thereby more and more use of injected needles across IDUs. Till September 2009, Manipur had tested 3,38,203 blood samples of people, out of which 33,408 were found to be HIV positive.