By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Aug 30: With HIV/AIDS and drug abuse spiralling to what Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh called “alarming heights,” the Meghalaya government is considering drastic steps, including the prospect of mandatory HIV testing, to arrest the surge.
“The numbers are not stagnant, they are escalating and if we do not handle this situation it will reach very dangerous proportions,” Lyngdoh cautioned.
On whether Meghalaya might adopt mandatory testing, she pointed to similar experiments in other states. “We have seen that certain states in the country have experimented with certain policies. Is Meghalaya now going to be forced to emerge with its own specific policy? Will it result in mandatory testing before marriage? Will it result in declaring HIV/AIDS on a mission mode? Will it result in any other decision that will help address the problem is what we are mulling,” she said.
She, however, stressed that nothing had been finalised yet.
