Each year since 1998, NACO,

Each year since 1998, NACO, the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare and the National Institute of Medical Statistics (a body under ICMR) bring out estimates of India’s population living with HIV and AIDS. Released this year in July, the figures for 2006 represent the most accurate reading yet (see box “Methodology”) of India’s HIV and AIDS numbers. The process of enumeration and the results have been attested to and backed by international agencies – UNAIDS and WHO.

The 2006 estimates suggest national adult HIV prevalence in India is approximately 0.36 percent, amounting to between 2 and 3.1 million people. If an average figure is taken, this comes to 2.5 million people living with HIV and AIDS; almost 50 percent of the previous estimate of 5.2 million.

More men are HIV positive than women. Nationally, the prevalence rate for adult females is 0.29 percent, while for males it is 0.43 percent. This means that for every 100 people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHAs), 61 are men and 39 women. Prevalence is also high in the 15-49 age group (88.7 percent of all infections), indicating that AIDS still threatens the cream of society, those in the prime of their working life.

While adult HIV prevalence among the general population is 0.36 percent, high-risk groups, inevitably, show higher numbers. Among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), it is as high as 8.71 percent, while it is 5.69 percent and 5.38 percent among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) and Female Sex Workers