Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 30 Nov 1995
Lisa Vaughan / Reuter

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there could be at least five million people carrying the HIV virus in India by the end of the century. HIV is the virus that can lead to AIDS.

With a rapid turnover of health ministers in recent years, the Indian government has been criticised for not doing enough to fight AIDS.

Health and aid organisations are pushing education and a multi-sector partnership with government to help control the rapid spread of AIDS in this country of 900 million people.

"If you are to control AIDS, the government should be able to motivate the masses," said N.K. Shah, the World Health Organisation representative in India. "AIDS can be stopped by knowledge and education. Advocacy is required from the highest to the lowest level."

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), a state-run AIDS project launched in 1992, counts 2,095 diagnosed AIDS cases and 21,000 confirmed HIV-positive cases in the country.

Once AIDS reached India in the early 1990s, the dense population, poverty, and a high illiteracy rate turned it into a hidden but explosive epidemic.

"Numbers are not so important," said P.F. Bhapnagar, NACO project director. "AIDS moves in its own secret manner. The main thing is that the problem is serious and the number of cases is rising."

Health officials say AIDS is transmitted mainly through heterosexual sex in India. Recent studies show that more pregnant women are testing HIV-positive, suggesting AIDS is becoming increasingly widespread in the mainstream population, said Carol Leatherby, a WHO health education specialist.

Intravenous drug abuse, migrant workers, a trucking industry criss-crossing the country, prostitution, and social taboos against talking about sex have also aided its spread, she said.

NACO said World AIDS Day would be observed across India on Friday with special education and awareness programmes sponsored by state governments, including radio and TV campaigns, fun runs and school competitions.

Leatherby said making policymakers aware of the urgency of the matter was crucial. "It's an issue that goes beyond health," she said.

Because of India's high mortality rate from diseases such as tuberculosis or simple diarrhoea, "people don't see AIDS having an immediate impact...but the long-term social and economic impact of the AIDS epidemic is tremendous," she said.

When an Indian gets AIDS the whole family is affected, she said. Other family members stop working and lose income and children stop going to school, setting in motion a chain that weakens the economic and social fabric.

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