Health authorities and demographers are worried about the impact on the number of AIDS cases in the state with studies showing a high incidence of the disease among immigrants. Most of those returning are illegal immigrants who were living away from their families for a long time.
A study by the State Management Agency has revealed that more than 80 per cent of the HIV-positive people in Kerala acquired the infection outside, when they visited sex workers either before leaving the country or on their return. In turn these expatriates infected their wives.
The study found that there is one infected woman for every three infected men in Kerala.
D Prabhakaran of the SMA said the implications are serious, but pleaded helplessness in doing anything to prevent the spread of the epidemic. "There is no way for us to know the HIV status of the returnees," he explained. "Laws do
Dr N Prasanna Kumar of the Kerala AIDS Control Society said he doesn't believe in mandatory tests. "Knowing the HIV status of anybody is not going to help," he said, "since the health authorities cannot prevent him from practising sex. Sex is a private affair, in which none can intervene."
He told rediff.com that creating awareness against unprotected sexual intercourse is the only way to prevent the spread of the killer disease. "We have been doing everything possible in this regard."
S Irudayarajan, a member of the faculty of the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, said, "It is time for the health authorities to apply their minds to the grave situation. Kerala already has more than 1.5 million people who have returned from various parts of the world, including high-risk places. The return influx will increase in the coming years with several Gulf countries aggressively following a policy of localization."
Irudayarajan was a member of the team that visited several Gulf countries to study the condition of Keralites living there. Around 25,000 Keralites are scheduled to return from the UAE.
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