According to data provided to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the year 2020 saw nearly 80 per cent drop in people tested. groups.

Several routine health activities have taken a backseat due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and one among the worst hit was HIV-AIDS surveillance activities that saw a nearly 50 per cent reduction, as per the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

Apart from the diversion of manpower, a major factor behind the drop was due to the fact that sex workers were largely out of work, migrants were away and truckers were dormant during the lockdown, making it difficult for NGOs and AMC to conduct targeted interventions for these groups.

Deputy health officer at AMC and project director at AMC AIDS Society, Mehul Acharya, says that unlike tuberculosis treatment where a directly observed treatment (DOTS) system is followed permitting better monitoring, anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for HIV, AIDS patients require them to visit a health centre.

Five key target demographies are female sex workers, male sex workers, truckers, drug abusers and migrants.

Surveillance is primarily conducted under four categories with maximum categories under the general population. Three other categories include pregnant women during antenatal checks (ANC), children below two years of age and children more than two years but less than 18 years of age.

Data provided by the AMC shows that compared to 2019-20 when 1.12 lakh of the general population were tested, this year saw nearly an 80 per cent drop in people tested. As a result, positivity too has gone up this year. However, the rate of linking HIV positive patients with ART has remained constant both years at 97 per cent.

Notably, of the nearly Rs 4.5 crore budget provided by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to Gujarat, a significant chunk of Rs 1.68 crore is allocated for targeted interventions for migrants.

Acharya said, “A major reason for our work getting affected this year was owing to the fact that truckers stopped plying during the lockdown and we saw migrants moving away en masse. Sex workers too wouldn’t go out due to the lockdown.”

Acharya says that a peculiar thing about this viral infection is the stigma around it that makes patients reluctant to be forthcoming. “Say a husband tests positive, the next task becomes convincing and counselling his wife to get tested,” he said.

He added that the surveillance activity is expected to pick up as AMC is working with 15 NGOs.

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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The number of obese individuals in Brazil grew 67.8 percent between 2006 and 2018, according to data from the VIGITEL (Surveillance of Risk Factors and Protection for Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey), which was released on Thursday, July 25th, by the Ministry of Health.

The survey, carried out last year, showed that the index increased from 11.8 percent (2006) to 19.8 percent (2018) and that people between 25 and 34 years of age (84.2 percent) and between 35 and 44 years of age (81.1 percent) recorded the steepest increase in obesity. Among the genders, women showed the highest rate of obesity, with 20.7 percent, while men exhibited 18.7 percent.

The obesity rate had remained stable at 18.9 percent since 2015. The overweight rate also increased in Brazil. More than half of the population (55.7 percent) is overweight, and the rate is 30.8 percent higher than in 2006 when it was 42.6 percent. In this specific case, the population aged between eighteen and 24 years shows a higher incidence.

The data on obesity and overweight took the Body Mass Index (BMI) into account. The survey interviewed 52,395 people from 26 capitals and the Federal District. The interviews, conducted with people over 18 years of age, were performed between February and December 2018.

Increased healthy habits

In spite of the growth in obesity and overweight rates, the Brazilian population is becoming more and more engaged in healthy habits. Between 2008 and 2018, there was a 15.5 percent increase in regular fruit and vegetable intake, which is more prevalent among women (27.2 percent) than among men (18.4 percent).

The practice of physical activities grew by 25.7 percent compared to 2009. “The data indicate that the practice of some physical activity during free time is greater among men (45.4 percent) than among women (31.8 percent),” reports the ministry. “By age group, the rise is more significant in the population between 35 and 44 years old, with an increase of 40.6 percent over the past ten years”.

The adult population is also reducing the intake of soft drinks and sugary beverages. The drop was 53.4 percent in the period from 2007 to 2018. In November, the ministry set targets to reduce the amount of sugar in industrialized products. The goal is to reduce 144,000 tons of sugar in products by 2022.

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