Date:26/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/26/stories/2005052601851300.htm

National

India rebuts U.N. claim on HIV prevalence

Staff Correspondent

``Number of infections less than 1 per cent''

Comparison with South Africa misplaced
28,000 new cases in 2004-05 against 5.2 lakhs last year

8,000 patients being treated in government hospitals

NEW DELHI: The Government on Wednesday rebutted the claims of a U.N. Global Fund for TB and AIDS representative, R. Feacham, that India might overtake South Africa in HIV/AIDS prevalence.

The number of adult HIV infections in the country was less than one per cent compared to 21.5 per cent in South Africa, it said.

Releasing the latest surveillance figures compiled by the National Aids Control Organisation here, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said Dr. Feacham's "misplaced" comparison amounted to disgracing India. "He does not have more information than we have and he gives no figures"

The figures, released in the presence of representatives of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAID) and the World Health Organisation, indicated that only 28,000 new HIV positive cases were reported in the country in 2004-05 as against 5.2 lakhs the previous year.

While 69.3 per cent of the new cases were from six "high prevalence" States, 28 per cent were from "low prevalence" States and the remaining from "medium prevalence" States.

Of the 1.3 lakh "known HIV positive cases," 8,000 were receiving treatment in government hospitals.

"About 44,000 cases are reported from Tamil Nadu alone because of better treatment facilities and greater awareness in the State,'' the Minister said.