The Hindu Business Line : `HIV prevalence rising in India'

SOME countries in the Caribbean region, Kenya and Zimbabwe may have managed to bring down the HIV/AIDS infection rates, but for India, the news has not been so good.

According to the AIDS Epidemic Update 2005 released by UNAIDS, "Although levels of HIV infection prevalence appear to have stabilised in some States (such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra), it is still increasing in at-risk population groups in several other States. As a result, the overall HIV prevalence has continued to rise." An estimated 5.1 million people are living with HIV in the country.

Referring to States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where the prevalence among pregnant women is still very low, the report said that even relatively minor increase in HIV transmission could translate into huge numbers of people becoming infected in those States. Also, a signi{filig}cant proportion of new infections are occurring in women who are married and who have been infected by their husbands.

While HIV infection in South India is mainly caused due to unprotected sex, drug use in the North- East is the main reason for the spread of the infection. "Commercial sex (along with injecting drug use, in the cases of Nagaland and Tamil Nadu) serves as a major driver of the epidemics in most parts of India.

"The recent {filig}nding that 26 per cent of sex workers in the city of Mysore (Karnataka) were HIV-positive is not surprising given that just 14 per cent of the women used condoms consistently with clients and that 91 per cent of them never used them during sex with their regular partners," said the report.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Mr Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS said, "Despite the encouraging news from some countries, the reality is that the AIDS epidemic continues to outstrip global and national efforts to contain it." The overall number of people living with HIV continued to increase in all regions of the world except the Caribbean.

The number of new infections in 2005 worldwide stood at five million, taking the total number of people living with HIV to 40.3 million, double the number in 1995. Nearly, 3.1 million people died of AIDS this year of which 5,70,000 were children under 15 years.

The main reasons for the success in certain parts of the world are increased condoms usage, delay of first sexual experience and fewer sexual partners.

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