India home to one in seven HIV infected people worldwide

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India home to one in seven HIV infected people: New UN report

23.04 IST 06th July 2004

By IndiaExpress Bureau

While India is home to one in seven HIV-positive people worldwide,

the largest number of infected with the dreaded infection outside

South Africa, the knowledge about AIDS is still scant, according to

a new UNAIDS report.

" Most infections are acquired sexually, but a small proportion is

acquired through injecting drug use, the report " 2004 Report on the

Global AIDS Epidemic " , released in New Delhi said.

The report said that though national HIV prevalence in India and

China, the most populous countries of the world, is still low -

between 0.4 and 1.3 per cent in India, and 0.1-0.2 per cent in

China - a closer focus reveals that both have extremely serious

epidemic in a number of provinces, territories and states.

In the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and

Tamil Nadu, HIV is transmitted mainly through hetrosexual sex and is

largely linked to sex work, it said.

According to some surveys, more than half of sex workers have become

infected with HIV, it said, adding in all four states, infection

levels among pregnant women in sentinel antenatal clinics have

remained roughly stable at over one per cent, suggesting that a

significant number of sex workers' clients have passed on HIV to

their wives.

However, knowledge about HIV is still scant and incomplete in India

with a behavioural study in 2001 among 85000 people finding that

only 75 per cent had heard about AIDS.

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