Piot: India's HIV cases far higher than official numbers

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Claim India's HIV cases far higher than official numbers

21 November 2005

GUWAHATI: The number of new HIV cases in India, home to the second

highest number of infections in the world, is far more than what

official data shows and epidemics in some pockets were alarming, the

UN Aids chief said.

India, which has 5.1 million people living with HIV/Aids - second

only to South Africa - announced earlier this year that new

infections had fallen dramatically to 28,000 in 2004 from 520,000 in

2003, sparking disbelief among voluntary groups.

Piot, the executive director of UNAids, told Reuters he did

not believe that India could have witnessed such a drop.

" India having only 28,000 new infections is plainly impossible, "

Piot said.

He said some districts across the country with populations of

several million had about four per cent or more adults infected and

a 400 per cent fall in 2004 would be a " miracle " .

" There are a number of states where reporting of cases is weak, "

Piot said in Guwahati, the main city of India's remote northeast,

during a visit to push authorities in the region to do more to fight

Aids.

Piot did not say what UNAids felt the real number of new cases was

in 2004. His comments came ahead of the release of the UN annual

global report on Aids in New Delhi on Monday.

Piot said two of India's most populous states - Uttar Pradesh and

Bihar, with a combined population of more than 250 million - had

poor surveillance.

" We don't know exactly what is going on there, " said Piot. " I don't

think there is a conspiracy to suppress information but it

(surveillance) is not well-organised to say the least. "

India's state-run National Aids Control Organisation says 0.92 per

cent of the country's adult population is living with HIV and there

are six states, and possibly a seventh, with a infection rate of

more than one per cent.

Piot said the Aids picture in India, which has 29 states and more

than a billion people, was complicated with new infections falling

in some areas and rising in others.

For instance, new infections were falling in urban areas but rising

in rural areas in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The spread of the deadly HIV virus was being fuelled by millions of

poor male migrants who go to cities for work. Some of them get

infected after visiting prostitutes and pass it on to their wives in

rural areas, experts say.

The Indian government and voluntary groups needed to boost efforts

and expand small but well-managed anti-Aids projects, Piot said.

Many HIV-positive people in India's northeast had been left out of

nationwide HIV counts and not all those accounted for were getting

anti-retroviral drugs, he added.

" A virus does not have feet, you know. It is transported by people, "

Piot said. " I am disappointed the programmes are not reaching more

people. "

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