Health campaigners on Wednesday dismissed claims by the Indian government that the country had shrunk the growth rate of new HIV infections by 95%.
About 526 000 people were infected in India in 2003, but the latest official figures showed an increase last year of just 28 000. India has the second largest number of people in the world living with HIV and was widely expected to overtake South Africa this year.
However, for the first time government figures registered a drop in the percentage of people registered as HIV-positive. Of India’s 560-million adults, last year 5,1-million were recorded as having HIV. South Africa has 5,3-million cases.
Activists in India said they were ”dismayed” and ”perturbed” by the new numbers as no non-governmental organisation working with people with Aids had registered such a drop in demand for their services.
”It is the reverse. All the NGOs I know have recorded increases in the number of people accepting help because of HIV. I am really worried that we are just burying our head in the sand over this,” said Anjali Gopalan of the Naz Foundation, which works with people with Aids in Delhi.
The Indian health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, said that he could not explain the sudden drop in cases. ”It is the statistics we have obtained from our surveillance,” he said. ”We believe them.”
The latest figures show that women and the rural poor are increasingly being affected. More than 60% of infections are now found in the countryside and 2-million women are living with HIV. – Guardian Unlimited