GUWAHATI: On the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on Monday, grim statistics remind that injecting drug users (IDU) from the northeast are susceptible to AIDS/HIV and Hepatitis C infections. According to estimates, there are 66,000 IDUs in the northeast. As per HIV Sentinel Surveillance data, IDUs constitute 1.46% of the high-risk group for HIV.Kailash Ditya, deputy team leader of Project Sunrise, a project that oversees a prison intervention program (PIP) for high risk groups among prisoners, told TOI that 40 inmates at Guwahati Central Jail with a history of IDUs have been tested for HIV/AIDS since January. "We are working on to bring down demand, supply and harm reduction among the inmates. There is also risk assessment at the same time among the inmates" said Ditya.Though harm reduction programmes (HRN) and oral/opiod substitution therapy (OST) is gaining ground in HIV-afflicted states like Manipur, Mizoram , Nagaland and Mizoram, reaching OST to all parts of the northeast is a challenge because 84% of the population in the northeast resides in rural areas."The Centre has to initiate a surveillance system for HCV at the earliest. IDUs are most vulnerable to HCV. There is no data of how many are affected. There is the need for estimation and study of the disease burden of HCV. Without estimation, proper policy cannot be formulated," said Ketholelie Angami, the chairperson of Northeast Hepatitis C Forum

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