Six lakh new AIDS cases since last yr: NACO study

According to NACO authorities, there has been an addition of about six lakh new cases compared to last year. The country has also witnessed an increase in the number of mother-to-child infections. The estimates are based on HIV sentinel survey conducted in 384 sentinel sites. ‘‘The group of experts decided that India should present a range of estimates instead of a point estimate. This is a more scientific approach and reflects ground realities better and helps planners to identify intervention for people living with HIV/AIDS,’’ said Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh, Project Director, NACO.

The authorities insist that the range of 3.82 to 4.5 million includes a mark up of 20 per cent to account for the unaccounted number of infections among high risk groups and also to account for other age groups. ‘‘The figures of 4.5 million is the higher end of the range, it doesn’t mean that it is the exact number of people affected by the disease,’’ said Ghosh. ‘‘The increase of six lakh is not alarming and doesn’t mean that the AIDS control programme is not working. The figures are very low when compared to sub-Saharan Africa,’’ she added.

Though NACO revealed positive things like plateauing of HIV prevalence in Tamil Nadu, decline of transmission through blood and blood products and also a decline among injection users, there has been an increase in mother-to-child-transmissions. While the transmission was 0.33 per cent in 1999, it has increased to 2.61 per cent in 2002.

There is also a slight increase in states which were called the STD sites. The states are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.