Silchar, April 24: Mizoram has the second highest number of HIV-positive persons, after Manipur, in the region.
According to a survey conducted recently by Mizoram AIDS Intervention Network, an NGO, the state has 4,169 HIV/AIDS-infected persons, 2,577 of whom are men and 1,592 women.
The survey says since 1990, when the first HIV case was detected in the state, 169 persons have died of the disease. The state is now estimated to have 356 full-blown cases. You-ths between 25 and 34 years make up the highest number of patients at 1,686. Those between 15 and 24 years are numbered at 1,097 and those between 35 and 44 years at 1,100.
Officials in the state wing of the National Aids Control Society said sexual contact was a major cause of the high incidence of HIV/AIDS, followed by blood transfusion and use of used syringes by drug addicts.
HIV on rise in Mizoram
