NEW DELHI, Dec 22, 2007 (AFP) - HIV-positive women in the northern Indian state of Punjab were forced by technicians at a medical institute to have sex in return for tests and medicines, a report said Saturday.
Police were investigating the allegations against employees of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in state capital Chandigarh, the Times of India said.
The women who complained of abuse were mainly young patients from city slums.
"I was helped by a technician there. He provided me medicines and other testing facilities without any problem," a 27-year-old widow who was diagnosed with HIV in 2005 told the paper.
"But this was all for his sexual gratification.
The woman said she was also asked to procure other girls for workers at the institute's AIDS testing and counselling centre.
Stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive people are widespread in the country of 1.1 billion people, where an estimated 2.5 million people are infected with the virus, according to the United Nations.
The number of estimated AIDS cases in India came down sharply this year from estimates of 5.7 million cases in 2005, reflecting an increase in testing and better statistical sampling methods, the UN said.
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