As many as 26 HIV cases have been diagnosed in Siraha in the running fiscal year 2016/17.

District Public Health Office (DPHO) had run examinations in VCT centres at Ram Prasad Uma Memorial Hospital and Siraha District Hospital in which 26 persons tested positive for HIV. Twenty persons tested positive at Ram Prasad Uma Memorial Hospital and the other six persons were tested positive at the District Hospital, said Saroj Karna of DPHO’s HIV/Aids Coordination Committee. With these new cases, the number of HIV patients in the district has now climbed to 68.  Siraha had witnessed 12 HIV related deaths in the fiscal year 2015/16. DPHO Chief Dr Diya Shankerlal Karna said most HIV cases were among migrant workers or their spouses. Many people who work abroad have been found engaging in unprotected sex while they are away from home, and when they return, they do not get tested, thus exposing their spouses to infection, Dr Karna added. (RSS)