Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

AIDS scourge in Vijayawada

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA SEPT. 2. About 10 per cent of the pregnant women were found to be HIV positive at the Prenatal Testing Centre at the Government General Hospital here in the last four months.

Though officials put the figure at 8 to 10 per cent and say that it is alarming by any standards because the national average is only two per cent, unofficial sources say that the figure is about 12 to 15 per cent, giving Vijayawada the dubious distinction of having the largest number of HIV positive cases next to Mumbai in the country. The AIDS Control Society has opened a Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre here. It has been made mandatory for all pregnant women coming to the Government hospital to undergo blood tests after due counselling and medicines are made available to prevent the disease from being transmitted by the mother to the child.

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• AIDS scourge in Vijayawada

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