OVER SIXTY LAKH HIT BY HIV/AIDS IN INDIA

New Delhi, 26 September 2005

NEW DELHI, September 27(INFA) More than 60 lakh people are living with HIV/AIDS in India, according to the country’s National AIDS programme. About 38 per cent of them are women. Globally India is second only to South Africa in terms of the overall number of people living with the disease.

The scenario of the killer disease in the country causes concern, following this information against to the background that the first case was diagnosed among workers in Chennai in 1986.

A 2002 report by the CIA’s National Intelligence Council predicted 20 million to 25 million AIDS cases in India by 2010, more than any other country in the world.

The UN Population Division has projected that India’s adult HIV prevalence will peak at 1.9 per cent in 2019. The world body has estimated that there were 2.7 million AIDS deaths in India between 1980 and 2000.During 2000-2015, the UN projects, 12.3 million AIDS deaths and 49.5 million deaths during 2015-2050.

Although HIV/AIDS is still largely concentrated in at-risk populations, including commercial sex workers, injecting drug users, and truck drivers, the surveillance data suggests that the epidemic is moving beyond these groups in some regions and into the general population. It is also moving from urban to rural districts. The majority of the reported AIDS cases have occurred in the sexually active and economically productive 15 to 44 age group.

The predominant mode of HIV transmission is through hetero-sexual contact, the second most common mode being injecting drug use. Previously, blood transfusion and blood product transfusion were also major causes, but blood safety measures are now in place to prevent such migration of economically productive sections of the population which is a common phenomenon all over India.

The social reactions in India against people with AIDS have been overwhelmingly negative. Educating people about HIV/AIDS and prevention is complicated as India has many major languages and hundreds of different dialects.

The UNDP proposes a strategic plan for HIV/AIDS for 2001-2005 – intensified efforts to support programme countries, working with the private sector to establish work-place policies and programmes, development of tools and methodologies to increase the involvement of new parteners.

If successful, the vaccine will go into its second and third stages of testing.  This vaccine is aimed at fighting strain C of HIV, the sub-type most commonly found in the country.

With no cure for HIV, yet prevention is seen as the only way of checking its rapid spread. Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramdoss says, India has started the first phase of clinical trials, but 85 per cent of the focus will be still be on prevention.---INFA