India to cross-check AIDS numbers

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India to cross-check Aids numbers

A new report says more women are likely to be infected

India's health ministry is to appoint private consultants to determine

how many people in the country are infected with the Aids virus.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said a number of firms, including

international consultants McKinsey, had been short-listed.

India says more than five million of its citizens are infected with

the HIV virus, second only to South Africa.

But activists say the number of Indians affected by HIV/Aids is much

higher.

Mr Ramadoss said Tata Consultancy and the Indian Institute of

Management had been shortlisted along with McInsey and a decision

would be made in a month.

" We are very much concerned. We want to check this [HIV/Aids] before

it becomes a burden, " he told journalists in the southern city of Madras.

Doubts raised

In July, the government-run National Aids Control Organisation (Naco)

said India had 5.1 million infections, second only to South Africa

which has 5.3 million people living with HIV or Aids.

" We feel ashamed when visitors to India express apprehension over the

AIDS situation here " [Anbumani Ramadoss. Health Minister]

But Naco recorded 520,000 new cases in India in 2003 - a drop from the

previous year - and said it meant the government's Aids campaign was

working.

But Indian and international groups working to prevent HIV/Aids were

swift have questioned the figures.

Last week, Feacham, executive director of the Global Fund to

Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said HIV/Aids was a " ticking

time-bomb " for India and said the country's surveillance network was

inadequate.

Two years ago, the United States National Intelligence Council

estimated there were five million to eight million HIV-infected people

in India, a number it said could swell to 20-25 million by 2010.

And last year, a report from the Global HIV Prevention Working Group

warned that China and India are standing " on the brink of widespread

epidemics " , as HIV spreads from groups at high risk to the broader

population.

Women at risk

But Health Minister Ramadoss says there is no need to panic as only

0.5% of Indians have been infected, compared to 2.1% in Thailand and

2.3% in South Africa.

Half of India's new HIV infections occur in the 10-25 age group but

only 59% of adolescents in the country are familiar with condoms, a

government report released over the weekend said.

The report also said the level of HIV infection among women is likely

to go up, with increasing numbers of married women being infected by

their husbands.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3672672.stm