NGOs contest Indian claim of large decline in HIV

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NGOs contest Indian claim of large decline in HIV

By Jo in New Delhi

Published: May 27 2005 01:02 | Last updated: May 27 2005 01:02

Non-governmental organisations yesterday challenged Indian

government statistics showing a 95 per cent decline in the number of

people who became infected with HIV last year, compared with 2003.

The figures imply the government's half-implemented policies have

almost halted the spread of a disease that many economists believe

could hamper India's emergence as an economic power if left

unchecked.

The ministry of health said its estimate of only 28,000 new cases of

HIV last year, compared with 520,000 in 2003, had been verified by

two independent New Delhi-based institutions, in line with World

Health Organisation and UNAIDS guidelines.

The quality of Indian government statistics from the size of the

country's tiger population to the value of India's textile exports

in the post-quota trading regime has been called into question on a

number of occasions in recent weeks.

" The trends show there is no galloping HIV epidemic in India, as no

evidence of upsurge in HIV prevalence has been observed, " the health

ministry said. " India remains a low-prevalence country with overall

HIV prevalence of 0.91 per cent of the population. "

Reflecting more widespread perceptions of the scale of India's Aids

challenge, Bill Clinton, former US president, said India needed to

act now to avoid the fate of African countries, such as Botswana,

that have been ravaged by the disease.

" You have no time to waste and every day that you delay puts the

country's whole economic future at risk, " Mr Clinton told an Aids

conference held by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

" I am quite hopeful about where you are, but this is not something

you can take casually. "

India is still indignant at last month's comment by Feachem,

executive director of the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria,

that the number of HIV infections in India had either already

overtaken that of South Africa or soon would.

The health ministry said: " Mr Feachem has realised that any loose

comments can be counter-productive. His intention is only to provoke

us into a bigger response in scaling up our efforts for prevention

and control of HIV/Aids in the country. " NGOs meanwhile expressed

incredulity at health ministry estimates, based on data collected at

478 " sentinel " sites across the country, that the prevalence of HIV

had decreased in some districts.

" One cannot have such a dramatic decrease in one year, " said Sai

Subhasree Raghavan, founder of Saathi, an NGO based in Chennai,

southern India.

" There is certainly a problem with the number, which doesn't make

sense when compared with information from other sources. "

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