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AIDS STATISTICS FOR INDIA |
India’s AIDS figures not as high
as expected
There are far fewer HIV infections
in India, says the latest survey.
June 25, 2007
Contrary to popular belief that
India is world’s leader in AIDS
infection, the sub continent has
millions fewer patients than widely
perceived, finds a survey.
The yet to be released survey suggests
that India really has between two and
three million victims and not 5.7
million as estimated by the united
nations in the year 2006.
India has managed to keep its
epidemic. The virus circulates mostly
within high-risk groups such as
prostitutes and their clients —
especially truckers; men who have sex
with men; and people who inject drugs,
especially in the northeast, on the
borders with Myanmar.
Experts on AIDS surveillance
techniques have been maintaining that
Indians do not have the same kind of
sexual networks that are common in
southern and eastern Africa, in which
both men and women often have two or
more occasional but regular sexual
partners over long periods of time.
The infection rate is generally high
–nearly 30 per cent--in Africa.
India’s union Minister Health & Family
Welfare Dr Ramadoss said he was
grateful for the pressure from critics
because it had forced the country to
move faster. “India is glaringly not
in a denial phase. We need to work
with the Global Fund, not contradict
each other.”
According to health ministry sources
India was spending $2 billion to fight
the disease and had 75,000 people on
free antiretroviral treatment so far,
2,000 centers giving sex education and
condoms to sex workers and clients,
and 3,600 free testing centers.
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