Reality Check: 7000 College Students Tested HIV Positive?

In this social media era, every piece of information travels at the speed of light with very little verification actually happening. A similar story grabbed the attention recently after it was reported that Karnataka has more than 7000 college students who had tested positive for HIV.

However, the latest clarification from the concerned department is suggesting that there is no truth in these media establishments.

Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) clarified that reports claiming 7,000 college students in the state are HIV-positive and that HIV testing has been made mandatory in colleges are completely false.

KSAPS said the MAS programme only promotes awareness and voluntary HIV risk assessment through a QR code. Apparently, under the clearly defined HIV & AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017, HIV testing cannot be mandatory and this confirms that the recent reports about mandating HIV tests in colleges is false.

The statistic about 7000 college students testing positive is reportedly a misinterpreted number that had nothing to do with the original number of cases in the first place.

But nevertheless, the Karnataka state suffered a lot of bad press for the last couple of days since these speculations went viral and the claims were made to seem like the state had its s*c culture all over the place.