- Wider access to anti-retroviral therapy reduced AIDS casualties Children account for 3.5 % of all infections
New Delhi: Even though the overall HIV infection prevalence rate has shown a 50 per cent decline during the past decade in India, among the States, Manipur continues to top the list with an adult prevalence of 1.40 per cent, followed by Andhra Pradesh (0.90 per cent), Mizoram (0.81 per cent) and Nagaland at (0.78 per cent). It is estimated that India had approximately 1.2 lakh new HIV infections in 2009 as against 2.7 lakh in 2000.
While all high-prevalence States indicate a clear declining trend from 0.41 per cent in 2000 to 0.31 per cent in 2009, HIV has notably declined in Tamil Nadu, according to the latest figures released by the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) here to mark World AIDS Day. The total number of people living with HIV infections in the country is close to 24 lakh, including 9.3 lakh women.However, low-prevalence States such as Chandigarh, Orissa, Kerala, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have shown rising trends in the past four years.
In Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, the estimated adult HIV prevalence is greater than the national average of 0.31 per cent, while Delhi, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry have a prevalence rate ranging between 0.28 to 0.30 per cent.
Of the 1.2 lakh-odd new infections in 2009, the six high-prevalence States account for only 39 per cent of the cases while Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat account for 41 per cent of new infections.
Children account for 3.5 per cent of all infections while 83 per cent are in the age group of 15-49 years. Of all HIV infections, 39 per cent (9.3 lakh) is constituted by women. Andhra Pradesh has 5 lakh, Maharashtra, 4.2 lakh, Karnataka, 2.5 lakh and Tamil Nadu, 1.5 lakh people living with HIV infections. West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are to have more than one lakh infected people while Punjab, Orissa, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have between 50,000-1,00,000 infections each.
