Aids situation now static: NACO

  From a country-wide perspective, the HIV/AIDS situation has stabilised. But Karnataka with its 2.5 lakh HIV+ cases and one of the highest prevalence rates, remain one of the main worries.

Karnataka together with Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu still account for 55 per cent of all HIV infections, reveals the new HIV/AIDS statistics released by the National AIDS Control Organisation here on Wednesday.

With an estimated adult HIV prevalence of 0.63 per cent, Karnataka is fifth on the list of worst-affected states. It is preceded by Manipur (1.4%), Andhra Pradesh (0.9%) Mizoram (0.81%) and Nagaland (0.78%).

At the national level, HIV/AIDS situation remained static with India having close to 24 lakh HIV positive cases and a prevalence of 31 per cent. New infections were dropped by half between 2000 and 2009. However, new worrying trends are emerging.

HIV prevalence is declining among female sex workers in most states. But HIV is on the rise among injecting drug users and men who have sex with men with many states reporting an increased trend.

Although new HIV infections show a downward trend in south east Asia including India, HIV/AIDS is still a serious public health problem and the most vulnerable group are children with HIV/AIDS, whose numbers have increased by 46 per cent between 2001 and 2009, said the World Health Organisation.

An UNICEF report points out that worldwide more than 1,000 babies are born with HIV every day and half of them die before their second birthday in the absence of diagnosis and treatment. The coverage in low- and middle-income countries still remains unacceptably low at 6 per cent.

In India children under 15 years account for 3.5 per cent of all infections while the bulk (83 per cent) is in the productive age of 15-49 years. Of all HIV infections, 39 per cent (9.3 lakh) are among women.

The second-rung states in terms of HIV risks are West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh all of which are estimated to have more than 1 lakh people living with AIDS. They account for 22 per cent of HIV infections in India.

The third group – Punjab, Orissa, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – have 50,000 to 1 lakh HIV infections each and together account for another 12 per cent of HIV infections.

In 2009, as many as 1.72 lakh Indians were killed by HIV/AIDS. But the overall number of AIDS death has come down in the wake of rolling out of anti-retroviral drugs in the NACO-run programmes since 2004.