Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Dec 1: Once considered a low-prevalence region, Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a slow but steady rise in HIV cases, with health professionals calling for urgent awareness, wider testing, and a decisive push to end stigma.
As per details, 2,071 new HIV cases and 66 AIDS-related deaths have been recorded in the Union Territory since 2019.
Although the overall adult prevalence in J&K remains among the lowest in the country, hovering between 0.03% and 0.06% in recent years, the numbers reflect that infections continue to occur, especially among high-risk groups such as people who inject drugs.
Doctors said the new figures underline a pattern they have been observing quietly for years. “J&K is not a high-burden state, but the upward trend is undeniable. Each new infection is preventable, and each delay in testing has consequences,” said a senior physician, requesting anonymity.
Another infectious-disease expert at a government medical college in Srinagar said that late diagnosis remains common. Many patients, he said, walk in only when their immunity is severely compromised. The reason is stigma and misinformation, he said. “If people felt safe coming forward, we would catch infections early and prevent most AIDS-related deaths.”
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) weakens the body’s immune system. Without treatment, it can progress to AIDS, a stage where the immune system becomes unable to fight common infections.
It mainly occurs due to unprotected sexual contact, sharing needles or syringes, mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, and rarely, contaminated blood transfusion where proper screening is absent.
According to doctors, modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) allows people with HIV to live long, healthy lives, and those who take ART regularly and achieve viral suppression cannot transmit the virus sexually.
Health workers said the most vulnerable group in J&K is people who inject drugs (PWID). “Sharing needles is one of the most efficient ways for HIV to spread. Even one shared syringe can transmit the virus,” said a senior community-medicine specialist.
Experts outline five pillars of HIV prevention, all of which need strengthening in J&K: early testing and linkage to ART, safe sexual practices, harm reduction for PWID (such as needle-syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy, which are proven to reduce transmission but remain limited in reach), testing pregnant women and providing timely ART to protect newborns, and community outreach and awareness.
“People still fear being judged more than they fear the disease itself,” said a psychiatrist involved in HIV counselling. “Stigma pushes the virus underground. It stops people from getting tested, hides cases within families, and delays treatment.”
He added, “Many people wrongly believe HIV spreads through casual contact – sharing food, shaking hands, or sitting together. These myths isolate patients and damage public health.”
Health experts said that HIV is now a treatable medical condition, not a moral issue, and must be approached with empathy. “If we want to reverse the trend, we must normalise HIV testing,” said one ART consultant. “Make it as routine as checking blood pressure, and we will catch cases before complications begin.”
Despite the rise in numbers, doctors said that J&K can prevent a larger outbreak if it acts now. “We have the medical tools — ART, testing, prevention programmes. What we lack is openness,” said a senior physician. “The message must be simple: HIV is not something to hide from. It is something to treat.”
