Aizawl: Heterosexual transmission through unsafe sex accounted for more than three-fourths of newly detected HIV infections in Aizawl district in 2025-26, with official data showing that 762 of the 1,005 new HIV-positive cases were acquired through heterosexual contact.Statistics presented at a meeting of the District AIDS Prevention and Control Committee (DAPCC) on Monday showed that 1,005 people tested positive for HIV from 36,634 general blood tests conducted in the district during the year, a positivity rate of 2.74%. In addition, 52 pregnant women were found HIV-positive from 8,595 antenatal blood tests.The report showed that people aged between 25 and 35 accounted for the largest share of new infections, with 381 cases. Fourteen children below 14 years and 79 people aged above 50 years also tested positive during the period.Besides heterosexual transmission, 160 infections (14.7%) were linked to injecting drug use, 62 (6.4%) to homosexual or bisexual contact, 12 (1.5%) to parent-to-child transmission, while the mode of transmission remained unspecified in nine cases.The district currently has 10,715 people receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), while 14 patients living with both HIV and tuberculosis (TB), the report said.Among high-risk groups, HIV was detected in 39 injecting drug users from 3,613 blood tests, 12 female sex workers from 366 tests, and 13 men having sex with men (MSM) from 7,333 tests.
