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India’s AIDS Cases Skyrocket, Nation Stands at Verge of Catastrophe
With the release of new statistics at the end of 2002, India appears to be creeping closer to an AIDS catastrophe. According to India’s National AIDS Control Organization, the number of AIDS cases reported to health authorities jumped more than 15 percent to 4.58 million infections in one year, the most drastic increase the country of more than one billion has yet seen. India now has the second largest HIV-positive population in the world behind South Africa, which has 5 million reported infections in a population of 42 million. In a number of Indian states, HIV infection among pregnant women has crossed the 1 percent mark for the first time. These numbers indicate that the disease has moved outside of high-risk groups like truck drivers and commercial sex workers and is beginning to spread through the general population.
“India is similar in many ways to Africa,” says World Vision communicator Jayanth Vincent. “Ignorance and high level of stigma keeps many from reporting their status. As the prevalence increases, the government's response is increasing. But with a population 51 percent greater than sub-Saharan Africa, India’s epidemic could have apocalyptic repercussions.”
World Vision runs several projects focused on stopping the spread of AIDS in India, including prevention education to truck drivers and commercial sex workers, and a home for HIV-positive mothers and their children, many of whose families turned them away when their HIV-status is revealed.
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