IAVI Report - February / March 2001
 

India’s foray into AIDS vaccine development comes amid growing evidence of HIV’s increasing foothold in the country and its frightening implications for this nation of one billion people—about one-sixth of the world’s population.

Official estimates are that 3.7 million people in India are infected with HIV (although the actual number is thought to be higher), second worldwide only to South Africa (UNAIDS, December 2000). This still corresponds to a low overall prevalence of <1%, which is far below the double-digit prevalence rates seen in much of Africa. 

But high-risk groups show a vastly different picture, and HIV is clearly making inroads into the general population. For example, there are an estimated four million commercial sex workers in India, and HIV prevalence among those in Mumbai is about 70%.* Among MSM (men who have sex with men) seeking healthcare at a Mumbai-based sentinel surveillance site, about 25% are HIV-positive,** and similar prevalence rates are being described for tuberculosis patients.^# Intravenous drug users, truckers and migrant laborers constitute other highly affected groups, and who in turn often infect their wives. Portending a significant worsening of the situation, several metropolitan areas now report prevalence rates above 2% in women attending antenatal clinics, as well as a corresponding rise in the number of infected infants and children.^#

Prevention efforts have lagged behind, and they face an array of enormous obstacles: widespread poverty, a 70% illiteracy rate, the low status of women, deep-seeded taboos about discussing sexuality, and the tremendous stigma of homosexuality.

*American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)

**Humsafar Trust (an NGO for MSM), which runs the site with support from India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)

#NACO

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©2001. The IAVI Report.

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