At least 60 pregnant women have tested HIV positive in 16 months at a government medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, according to an India Today report. A health department official added that the situation is being monitored closely and that all affected women are being treated at the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centre of Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College of Meerut.
The matter came to the notice of health officials following a report drafted by the ART Centre. The report revealed that HIV was confirmed in 81 women who were admitted to the hospital for delivery. Alarmingly, 35 out of these 81 HIV-positive women have given birth to children. The ART Centre’s nodal officer was quoted as saying by the publication that HIV tests of the newborns will be done once they complete one-and-a-half years and further measures will be taken after that.
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The ART Centre's report further documents that between 2022-23, 33 fresh HIV cases were reported among pregnant women admitted at Meerut's Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College Hospital. Till July 2023, 13 more fresh cases were registered. Added to this, 35 pregnant women were found to be already affected by HIV.
"Cases of HIV among 60 women in Meerut's Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College have been confirmed. However, all the women and newborn children are stable and in a healthy state," Meerut’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Akhilesh Mohan Prasad was quoted as saying by the publication. He also added that other details of the women are not known at present and that a team will be entrusted with the task of finding the details about these women and also tracking how they contracted the virus.
HIV is a transferable disease that spreads from one person to another through sexual contact or when a person comes in contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. The disease can spread through the blood, semen, or vaginal fluids of an infected individual. It can be passed on from a mother to her child during the time of pregnancy, childbirth or even during breastfeeding. It may also be transferred to a new person by the usage of needles which were already used on an infected person while getting tattooed or injecting drugs.