Increase in HIV patients in Galle

Health officials in the Galle district are concerned about the rising HIV infection rate.

According to Dr Darshani Wijewickrema, Medical Officer of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention Unit at Galle’s Mahamodara Hospital, 25 HIV-positive individuals were discovered there in 2021, and 36 in the previous year. She emphasised that there would be further patients with the condition who had not yet been located. She claimed that most of them were men older than 20.

She also stated that 427 individuals were reported from the country from January to September of last year, bringing the total number of patients identified from September 1986 to 4831 since the first HIV infection was detected in the country.

Dr Mrs Wijewickrama expressed concern that AIDS was spreading at an alarming rate.