OneWorld.net (U.S.)

New Delhi: India has been under a global scanner for over a year because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic which international agencies and Indian non governmental organisations (NGOs) say is growing phenomenally though the Indian government has denied it. The controversy has ballooned to include accusations that the HIV/AIDS problem is being unduly magnified to attract international funds. The irony lies in the fact that Indian organisations are sparring even as the infection soars in the country.

The country erupted into a major debate over AIDS figures after the chief of the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Richard Feachem said that the number of people suffering from HIV/AIDS in India had exceeded those in South Africa, which has 5.3 million cases. He said that India might have nearly 8.5 million sufferers.

The Indian government reacted sharply to these statements and released figures jointly with UNAIDS which say that India has 5.134 million people infected with AIDS and that these figures have been vetted by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Indian government has also tried to blunt comparisons with South Africa by saying that while 21-23 per cent of the South African population is stricken with the infection, less than one per cent of the Indian population suffers from the disease.

HIV prevalence continues to increase in India and that there are major inter-state disparities. The country is vulnerable to HIV because of its huge population, widespread illiteracy and ignorance, poverty, poor health access and stigma that prevails not only in the population but also amongst doctors. The primary cause of the spread of the infection is heterosexual sex, blood transfusions and intravenous drug use.

© Global Health CouncilThe causes for the infection vary because of differences in the regions. In certain south Indian states sex workers are believed to be the main reason for the infections, while in north east India and the metropolises intravenous drug use amongst the youth is a major cause.

India gets funds from the World Bank, USAID, Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its HIV/AIDS efforts. The World Bank and DFID would fund the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) which falls under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. But with the recent advent of international agencies Indian NGOs are also looking forward to massive funding for their work on AIDS, primarily from the Gates Foundation.

The first HIV case was reported in 1986 from the south Indian metro city of Chennai - the capital of Tamil Nadu. Though India had launched its HIV-prevention programme in the very early stages of the epidemic and has tried to keep up with the dynamic ever-changing scenario, its huge and ever-growing population makes it highly vulnerable to the infection.

© GlobalGivingIn 1994 the country also introduced free antiretroviral treatment in government hospitals in six states. Earlier this year trials of drugs to combat the epidemic were conducted in a number of states in India.

Though awareness about the infection has been increasing steadily, impediments like stigma persist. Last year two children in the south Indian state of Kerala, a state that boasts of literacy levels akin to the West, were denied admission to schools as they were the victims of the disease. Cases of infected women having been thrown out of homes have surfaced in the media. Even in New Delhi, the capital of India, the media has reported cases of doctors not attending to AIDS patients out of fear.

Many experts say that unless the disease is treated like any other sexually treated disease (STD) HIV/AIDS would continue to spread. People have to understand that the disease, over a period of time, has spread in the society and is no longer confined to the high target groups like sex workers or truck drivers. Also the epidemic has moved from urban to rural areas.

The seriousness of the infection is such that the United Nations has added it prominently in its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDG six - Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis - says that HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are among the world’s biggest killers and impact poor countries and poor people more than anyone else.

Target 7 of the MDGs says that the international community should make efforts to stop HIV/AIDS by 2015 and thereafter should be able to reverse the spread of the disease.

For Indian organisations - the government as well as the NGOs - the need of the hour is to bury differences and get together to tackle the infection at the earliest. Otherwise, the economic burden brought about by HIV/AIDS will start eating into the progress that the country is currently making.