HIV/AIDS in Asia - HIV on the rise in India

In a country where poverty, illiteracy and poor health are widespread, the presence of HIV haunts a daunting challenge. It has been considered as the pernicious and one of the most deadly viruses diagnosed till date which causes genetic disorder in human body. “HIV infection is now common in India.

It can be stated without any fear of being wrong that infection is widespread and is spreading rapidly into those segments which are least recognized by Indian society, AIDS is coming out of the closet.” It is mostly prominent in underdeveloped and some of the developing nations of the world.

Likewise, if we talk about India in the present scenario with one of the fastest growing population, with over 1,130 million of inhabitants, 2.3 million people are living with HIV. People living with HIV in India come from incredibly diverse cultures and backgrounds.

The vast majority of infections occur through heterosexual sex including sex workers, men who have sex with men, truck drivers and migrant workers, do face a disproportionately higher risk of infection. “In the north-east, the dual HIV epidemic driven by unsafe sex and injecting drug use is highly concerning. Moreover, there are many areas in the northern states where HIV is increasing, particularly among injecting drug users.”

Before 1986 India was free from the curse of this virus and the number of HIV patients at that time was 20,000 worldwide but unfortunately later in 1986 first cases of HIV were diagnosed among sex workers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was noted that contact with foreign visitors had played a role in initial infections among sex workers. With the increasing rate of affected cases various policies were formulated to curb the problem, as a result in 1992 the government set up NACO (the National AIDS Control Organization) to oversee the formulation of policies, prevention work and control programs relating to HIV and AIDS. At the same time it launched a Strategic plan for HIV prevention which established the administrative and technical basis for program management and also set up State AIDS bodies in 25 states and 7 union territories.

It was able to make a number of important improvements in HIV prevention such as improving blood safety.NACO established test centers throughout the country particularly in the severely affected areas which included the sex workers regions. Talking about the present scenario starting from 2008, NACO began to roll out government funded second-line anti-retroviral treatment in two centers in Mumbai and Chennai. At the beginning of 2009 second-line therapy was available in a total of eight states. However, the large scale of India’s epidemic, the diversity of its spread, and the country’s lack of finances and resources all present barriers to India’s antiretroviral treatment program.

In India AIDS is not only considered as a disease but it has been a matter of discrimination against the affected persons just because the HIV epidemic is misunderstood by some people. People living with HIV have faced violent attacks,been rejected by families, spouses and communities, been refused medical treatment, and even, in some reported cases, denied the last rites before they die. As well as adding to the suffering of people living with HIV, this discrimination is hindering efforts to prevent new infections. While such strong reactions to HIV and AIDS exist, it is difficult to educate people about how they can avoid infection.

Discrimination is also alarmingly common in the health care sector. Negative attitudes from health care staff have generated anxiety and fear among many people living with HIV and AIDS. As a result, many keep their status secret. It is not surprising that for many HIV positive people, AIDS-related fear and anxiety, and at times denial of their HIV status, can be traced to traumatic experiences in healthcare settings. It has been found that till 2009 over 25% of the affected have been refused medical attention for their positive HIV status.


In the new era where mindsets of each and every individual are changing and are shifting towards positive aspect of rationalization, the awareness for prevention from HIV has been increasing rapidly incorporated by the print media, televisions,radios, slogans which provide value aided information (such as use of condoms)which has been a great source of assistance to the government of India and the anti-AIDS campaigns to curb the hazardous disease. Indeed, recent surveys do suggest that national HIV prevalence has probably fallen slightly in recent years. This trend is mainly due to a drop in infections in southern states in other areas there has been no significant decline.

“The challenges India faces to overcome this epidemic are enormous. Yet India possesses in enormous quantities of all the resources needed to achieve universal access to HIV prevention and treatment. Defeating AIDS will require a significant intensification of our efforts, in India, just as in the rest of the world”