Agartala, July 10: In the wake of some misleading media reports, Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has given clarification on the HIV/ AIDS scenario with facts and figures.

In a social media post, Dr. Saha mentioned that the Tripura government has been taking various measures to prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS in the State.
The Chief Minister said, some recent media reports have led to misgivings on the number of infected students and fatalities due to HIV/AIDS.
"It has been clarified by the department concerned that a total of 828 students in Tripura have tested HIV positive and 47 have lost lives over a period of 17 years (from April, 2007 to May, 2024)," the Chief Minister wrote.
Dr. Saha also mentioned that all the affected students have already been brought unde Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) as per the NACO guidelines.
Meanwhile, the National AIDS Control Programme was launched in Tripura in April 1999. Over the past 25 years, the Tripura State AIDS Control Society has worked to control the spread of HIV according to guidelines set by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO).
According to sources, the abuse of injectable drugs is giving an alarming rise to the number of HIV/ AIDS cases among the students in Tripura.
An official data revealed that in 2018-19, the number of students with HIV positive was 23 and three deaths were reported.
In 2019-20, a total of 74 HIV positive cases were detected among the students and 11 deaths were recorded. In 2020-21, 82 HIV positive cases among students were registered in the state with five fatalities.
In 2021-22 and 2022-23, the total number of HIV positive case among students were 162 and 227 respectively and seven deaths in each year were recorded. On the year 2023-24, the state detected 154 HIV positive cases among the students with two deaths.