Parbati Khakdka

The situation of HIV / AIDS in Nepal is like an ocean covered with snow. Due to the geographical location of Nepal, lack of public awareness, and adequate health care, the number of AIDS patients has increased. There are many other reasons, but few are due to the economic and social status of AIDS patients.

Some people live in poverty for economic reasons. The same rope of poverty leads him to prostitution. Ultimately, when there is no public awareness about safe sex, people fall prey to HIV and AIDS. Due to the lack of uniform political stability at the policy-making level in Nepal and the widening gap of gender inequality in practice, HIV / AIDS patients are suffering even more.HIV and AIDS have different meanings. AIDS is the beginning of HIV infection and AIDS is the last stage of HIV. Lokraj Pandey, information officer at the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Center, said that HIV was more prevalent in the hilly districts of the far west in Nepal and in Pokhara. The state of the epidemicAccording to the statistics of the Ministry of Health and Population of the Government of Nepal, out of a total of thirty-one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven AIDS patients, twenty thousand HIV patients are between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine years. Similarly, eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-five patients above the age of fifty are mentioned in the statistics of the Ministry. One thousand two hundred and sixty-eight children have also been diagnosed with AIDS. The first case of AIDS in Nepal was reported in 1988.As of December 15, 2011, the official number of people living with HIV was 19,118. As of 2011, about 50,200 people were living with HIV in Nepal. Even now, about 60 percent of those infected are unaware of their health status.

The main causes of HIV / AIDS

• Trafficking of female sex workers:

The rate of HIV infection among street sex workers in Kathmandu Valley is four percent. The main challenge for cultural, social, and economic HIV control is the trafficking of Nepali girls and women into commercial sex work in India.

• Unprotected sex:

Statistics show that in the year 2000, eighty percent of HIV cases were confirmed due to unprotected sex. 

•   Unsafe drug use

Estimates of internal and external migration for young people between the ages of fifteen and forty are essential for the economic livelihood of many households in Removal from social structures can lead to unsafe sexual practices, such as polygamy and sex shopping. A study of migrants returning from Mumbai

• Moving from mother to childIn Nepal, the statistics of two thousand twenty-one show that twenty percent of mothers transmit HIV / AIDS to their children.
• Other reasonsThere is not enough public awareness about safe sex and condom use in Nepal’s community. In many districts of Nepal, apart from the simple initiatives of community-based organizations, the government has not been able to make significant efforts. According to Lokraj Pandey of the information officer at the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Center.
• Symptoms of AIDS
•  Headache
• Muscle aches and joint pains
• Sore throat and mouth sores
•  Swollen lymph glands, mainly in the throat
• Diarrhea

In Nepal, men are more infected than women. Fifty-five percent of men are infected, while only forty-five percent of women are infected.Information Officer Pandey said that it was a complex problem for the Burmese not to come out openly.

The Government of Nepal has been doing a lot of work for the reduction of HIV / AIDS

According to the Lokraj Pandey, information officer at the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Center, The treatment of HIV has started in Nepal from the year 2004.The same is true nowIt is also providing free counseling and medicines to HIV HIV-positive.Eighty-three health desks have been set up across the country to test for HIV infection. Nepal aims to end by 2026.