In Assam, over three thousand persons have been detected as HIV-positive, whereas it is estimated that thousands of others carrying the virus are yet to be detected.<br/><br/>As the State is gearing up to observe the World AIDS Day on Tuesday, with the theme of ‘Universal access and human rights’, a strong need is being felt for HIV/AIDS prevention through large-scale awareness.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports, the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland continue to register an increase in HIV cases, primarily due to a high incidence of injectible drug use among the youth.<br/><br/>The region has been declared one of the country's high-risk zones, with close to one lakh people infected with HIV.<br/><br/>The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has already put three north-eastern states – Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram in the high-prevalence category. Manipur alone accounts for almost 71% of AIDS cases in the region.<br/><br/>According to UNAIDS' executive director in India Dr Peter Piot, Northeast India is an exceptional region. Hence it needs an exceptional strategy to combat the HIV/AIDS problem.<br/><br/>All three states share borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and experts believe the region's proximity to drug hubs such as Laos, Myanmar and Thailand makes the youth here more vulnerable to drug addiction and AIDS.<br/><br/>AIDS knows no borders and the northeast exemplifies it. Besides, the growing number of AIDS cases detected amongst security personnel deployed in the northeast was also cause for concern.<br/>