Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - December 8, 2006
India's National AIDS Control Organization - the AIDS arm of the country's health ministry - told the Supreme Court that only 46,000 people were receiving antiretroviral medicine at government-run centers, the Times of India newspaper reported.
The government was responding to a complaint filed by several advocacy groups that the country was making little progress in preventing HIV-positive people from getting full-blown AIDS.
The United Nations said earlier this year that India has the highest number of HIV infections in the world, 5.7 million, although that is significantly less than 1% of its billion-plus population.
Still, India has drawn increasing criticism from international health groups for failing to meet NACO's own goal of getting free antiretroviral drugs to 100,000 people by the end of 2005.
NACO softened that target, telling the Supreme Court that "India's commitment to cover 100,000 people under ART (antiretroviral therapy) by the end of 2005 was an aspiration," the newspaper said.
NACO said India will provide free treatment to 300,000 people by 2011, the newspaper said.
Although antiretroviral drugs do not cure AIDS, they help manage the disease's immunity-debilitating effects and suppress the multiplication of the virus.
India still faces budget constraints for AIDS prevention. Health authorities have earmarked US$200 million for programs in the 2006-07 financial year.
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