HIV On A Rise Amongst Drug Users In Visakhapatnam

Most people believe human beings to be the most intelligent creature in this universe. Humans have the capability of taking decisions and solving problems pertaining to what is good and what is bad for our life and health. Inspite of having knowledge about the consequences, people, especially the youth, commit mistakes. Such a move leaves them vulnerable to so many crimes and diseases. Though most of the youth are leading their lives towards good goals, some are destroying themselves by being drug-addicts and consequently, becoming victims of diseases like HIV and more.

Now a days HIV is spread so far and wide, there seems no end in sight to this deadly disease. The undisciplined habits and life style among youth lead to strengthening the above disease. Occurrence of HIV is found high among youngsters who are involved in usage of drugs via injections. This malpractice is slowly increasing and costing the lives of young. The City Task Force Police has reportedly revealed that youngsters in the city who are addicted to drugs and sedatives end up contracting HIV.

The CTF personnel further stated that nearly 1,000 youngsters in Vizag including college students, drop outs and others are getting habituated to Fortwin injections. These injections are very dangerous for the teenagers who inject it directly into their veins. The Fortwin injection costs only Rs 6 but the sellers are selling it for Rs 150. Even though precautions of using new needles and syringes are taken up by some, the lack of money forces many others to use unhygienic and used needles. The police officer of CTF even said that the prevalence of this disease in our city is four percentage among the injection drug users only.

The ACP (task force) Chittibabu reportedly also said that youngsters of the city are addicted to injection drugs and sedatives like Alprazolam, Nitrosun tablets and various types of cough syrups only for the fun quotient. But others end up getting contracted HIV as the precautions are not taken. He also said that they don’t take any severe action on the youth but they are bought to police station for counselling. Help is provided to the police in return when the youth provide details of their sellers.

The police officials further said that they even tried to help out the victims by admitting them to hospitals for de-addiction programs. But they were not yielding any results as the addicted are returning to their habits after six months or one year.