[Ip-health] 'Sharp drop' in India Aids levels

[Tahir Amin]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
 'Sharp drop' in India Aids levels
* The number of people living with HIV/Aids in India is around half of
previous official estimates, at between 2-3.1 million people, new figures
say. *

The UN-backed government estimates are sharply lower than earlier figures,
the health minister announced on Friday.

Previous estimates from the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) put
the number of HIV cases at 5.2m, while UNAids in 2006 estimated 5.7m cases.

Officials say the lower estimate could be attributed to more accurate data.

* 'Still large' *

"Today we have a far more reliable estimate of the burden of HIV in India,"
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told a news conference in the Indian
capital.

"The results show that there are an estimated two million to 3.1 million
people affected with HIV-Aids.


 AIDS IN INDIA
  India's HIV prevalence rate is now estimated to be 0.36 percent
 Around 80,000 HIV-positive people receive free drugs
 The government plans 250 Aids treatment centres by 2009
 It hopes to carry out HIV tests on 42 million people by 2012
 Around 40% of women have not heard of Aids
 * Figures compiled by UNAids and Reuters *
* *

 "In terms of human lives affected, the number is still large, in fact very
large. This is very worrying for us."

The minister said that India had always been accused of underestimating the
number of Aids cases.

"That was a disturbing allegation, and today, we have a far more reliable
estimate," he said.

The latest estimates were calculated with the help of international
agencies, including the UN and US Agency for International Development.

Correspondents say that India was thought to have the world's biggest
HIV-positive caseload, but the new estimate means that South Africa and
Nigeria are more severely affected.

India is about to embark on a new and expanded phase of its Aids control
programme, with increased funding from the government and from international
donors.

Mr Ramadoss said that the prevalence level of the infection was now
estimated to be around 0.36 percent of the population of more than a billion
people - compared to an earlier estimate of 0.9 percent.

Correspondents say that a reason why the latest Aids estimates are so much
lower is because previously the UN reached the 5.7m figure by using hundreds
of surveillance centres to test the blood of pregnant women and high-risk
groups such as drug users and prostitutes over four months each year.

* 'Crumbling' system *

But more recently a new population-based survey that took the blood samples
of 102,000 people among the general public - rather than specific groups -
indicated for the first time India's HIV caseload was highly overestimated.

UNAids says such that such surveys are more accurate, as they are "more
representative" and generate "more accurate information" for rural areas and
the male population.

  But voluntary groups running anti-HIV/Aids campaigns say the lower numbers
should not allow people to become complacent, as there is still a strong
need to curb the spread of the virus in a country with a crumbling
government healthcare system.

The head of Naco, Sujatha Rao, said there was no reason to fear that money
to fight the Aids virus will be reduced.

She said that huge funding was still needed to test people and prevent HIV
infection, in addition to providing treatment for people suffering from the
illness.

"There is no question of reducing even a dollar towards the fight against
Aids," she said.

Last month, health officials said they were especially alarmed by the
growing numbers of pregnant women infected with HIV/Aids in the northern
states of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar.

They are among India's most backward, with huge populations but poor
literacy and health services.

Officials say workers who migrate to cities in search of work bring the
infection back to the states with them.

They said that unless the state governments got serious about tackling the
disease, there could still be an Aids epidemic.



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Tahir Amin
Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK)
+44 771 853 9472