Despite the concerted efforts of the various agencies to create awareness against AIDS, the total number of cases reported in Tamilnadu has surged to 27, 794, which include nearly 7000 women. This is almost double the number of cases reported about two years ago, which were less than 16,000 cases.
According to a latest study report by the Tamilnadu State AIDS Control organisation available with Pharmabiz.com, the Chennai district accounts for the most number of cases at 7656 people, including 1896 women.
Interestingly, Madurai district has reported more cases than Namakkal, at 1682, ahead of the 1602 cases reported in Namakkal, which had an alarming high-risk antenatal sero-positivity of around 4%. While Dindigul accounts for 1336 cases, Salem has 1578 cases, followed by 1348 cases in Vellore, 1317 cases in Villapuram, 1003 cases in Cuddalore, 1340 in Tiruchirappally and 900 odd cases in Thiruvalluvar and Dharmapuri districts. Despite being two busy tourist destinations in Tamilnadu, the districts of Kanyakumari and Nilgiris so far reported only 44 and 29 cases, the lowest in the state. In March 2003 alone, 694 fresh cases were reported in the state, including 204 cases from Chennai.
The age wise classification study undertaken by the organisation revealed around 904 kids below the age of 14 have been affected by the disease, and more than 60% of the AIDS cases belong to the 30-50 age group.
Heterosexual Promiscuous is the main source of infection in Tamilnadu, consisting of 96.31% of the samples studied by the Government agency. While Tuberculosis was the primary symptom in 46 cases, 255 cases out of 317 victims had P.C.P. and 16 patients had Candiadiasis as the primary symptom. While sexual route was the cause of risk/transmission category among 675 samples, 19 children under the purview of the study had perinatal infection. More than 200 of the patients had developed cough, low-grade fever and diarrhea as prominent symptoms, and some had weight loss and persistent generalized lymphadenopathy, revealed the study.