The National Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS Prevention Programme states that the reporting of new HIV infections has increased by 14.3 percent.
This is higher in 2023 compared to 2022, Director, Dr. Janaki Vidanapathirana said. She said that last year, 694 new HIV infected people were identified and most of them were men and the number is 611, which as a percentage is 88%. Last year, 81 HIV infected women were reported, which is 11.7% as a percentage. It is also reported that there are 4,100 infected people in society.
Doctors said that if a person is infected with this virus it takes about eight years for symptoms to show. If a person engages in risky sexual behaviour, an HIV test should be carried out and the test can be done even at home.
Use the Know4Sure app to do this test yourself at home. Through this app, the test kit needed to do this test via the App can be ordered and it will be delivered to home.
Sandhya Karunaratne