Ideas shared on the dos and don'ts of media coverage on HIV Manipur has about 28,000 people living with HIV

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Feb 2 : While Manipur ranks third in terms of rate of prevalence of HIV among adults, the State has around 28,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Of this about 6,000 are women and 1,000 are children, said officials of the Manipur State AIDS Control Society during a one day media workshop held at Manipur Press Club yesterday.
The workshop on “HIV/AIDS Ethics & Media Reporting” held under the theme "Stop the spread", was organised by the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) under the aegis of the Manipur State AIDS Control Society.
At the event, IEC & Mainstreaming Manipur State AIDS Control Society Assistant Director, Phanjoubam Langamba said Manipur has about 28,000 PLHIV (People living with HIV) accessing ART (Anti-Retroviral Therapy).
These 28,000 people living with HIV/AIDS include about 6,000 women and 1,000 children.
At one point of time, Manipur had the highest adult HIV prevalence in the country.
With proactive efforts and measures in place, the State now ranks third after Mizoram and Nagaland, he said.
The North East region States have the highest adult HIV prevalence (2.70% in Mizoram, 1.36% in Nagaland, and 1.05% in Manipur) as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
P Langamba also spoke about media’s role and ethics and said care should be taken when publishing news on HIV/AIDS and people living with the virus.
When the news is about women and children living with HIV/AIDS, preferably women journalists should approach them and cover the news. Further, while reporting, their identity and privacy should not be compromised and infringed upon, he added.
Speaking as chief guest of the event, Dr Thangjam Dhabali, Chairman and Managing Director of Babina Group of Companies spoke in details about AIDS/HIV and said the commonest ways through which HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) transmits include unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing of syringe needles and transfusion of blood from an infected person.
HIV attacks the immune system and slowly kills the body’s defense mechanism. This makes the person infected with HIV prone to many other diseases. Testing blood is the only way to confirm HIV infection. There are types of tests which include antibody tests, antigen/antibody tests, and nucleic acid tests (NAT), he said.
Manipur at present ranks third in terms of prevalence. To bring the HIV prevalence rate further down, concerted and collective efforts are needed. The media should also play its part in stopping transmission through dissemination of information, he said.
AMWJU president Wangkhemcha Shamjai said the workshop was organised to inform and educate people in the media about the ethics of reporting on HIV/AIDS. He also called on all media personnel to play their parts in stopping transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Senior journalist Pradip Phanjoubam spoke on the media's role in reporting HIV/AIDS issues and Ahongsangbam Mobi spoke on the media's role in curbing spread of HIV/AIDS in Manipur. The experts at the workshop also advised people to shun stigmatization of persons living with HIV/AIDS.