11,000 new HIV cases across Telangana last year

Hyderabad: A total of 11,846 new cases of HIV were registered last year, in Telangana state. The new cases were registered by the Telangana State Aids Control Society, which supplies medicines and care to those affected by the virus.

The total number of people living with HIV is now 1,73,398 in the state and the records are being kept since 1998, an RTI filed by an NGO has revealed.The number of new cases reveal that the disease is very much prevalent.

The ground-level programme is being run by various NGOs but there have been allegations of delays in funds. A senior TSACS employee said: “The budget for the state is released in five instalments but in the year 2016 we received only two. This has led to major shortage and the efforts on the ground, across the state, have been affected.”