Full Document (English) - POLICY Project

8
Strategies for Prevention
of HIV/AIDS in India
P. L. Joshi
Introduction
Globally, 42 million people are now living with HIV or AIDS. Just fewer than
40,000 new cases of HIV infections occur every single day. Ninety-five percent of all
AIDS cases occur in the world’s poorest countries. Five million people were newly
infected with HIV in 2003. Three million people died from AIDS in 2003, or more
than 8,000 persons a day. Nearly two-thirds (69%), of global cases live in sub-
Saharan Africa where seven southern African countries have prevalence rates over 20
percent. The vast majority of those affected are in the age groups between 15–49
years. There are emerging and growing epidemics in China, Indonesia, Papua New
Guinea, Vietnam, several Central Asian Republics, the Baltic States, and North
Africa.
The epidemic has devastating effects on the socio-economic development of the
country. It causes tremendous pressure on health care services, impacts on the
availability of a productive workforce, and leads to a steep rise in people living in
poverty. The average life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa is now 47 years when it
could have been 62 years without the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Africa’s annual per
capita GDP growth rate declined by 0.8 percent and the growth rate over the next
20 years is expected to be reduced by one-third.
In India, by the end of December 2002, we have an estimated 4.58 million men,
women, and children living with HIV or AIDS, an adult (15-49 years) prevalence
rate of about 0.8 percent. India accounts for 10 percent of the global HIV burden
and 65 percent of that in South and South East Asia. Viewed across Asia, adult HIV
prevalence is highest in Myanmar (3.5%), followed by Cambodia (2.7%), Thailand
(1.8%), India (0.8%), and Papua New Guinea (0.7%). India continues to be in the
category of low prevalence countries with an overall prevalence of less than 1
percent.
However, there are some challenges ahead. First, the mother-to-child transmission of
HIV has been progressively increasing; second, the threat of HIV transmission
among injecting drug users is increasing in the Northeast region and in metropolitan
areas. Though there has been no significant change in HIV prevalence over the last
five years in low prevalence states, site-wise analysis of the sentinel surveillance data
Prevention of
HIV/AIDS in Uttar Pradesh