India home to 2/3 of Asia’s HIV patients

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GENEVA, MAY 30: The Indian subcontinent is a major cause for concern in the global aids epidemic, with India accounting for two-thirds of HIV cases in Asia, according to a report by the United Nations released on Tuesday.
The world's second-most populous nation has overtaken S Africa as the country with a maximum number of people living with the virus, the specialised agency, UNAIDS said.

An estimated 5.7 million Indians were infected by the end of 2005, compared with an estimated 5.5 million people in South Africa, which was grappling with one of the highest per capita infection rates in Africa, the hardest-hit continent, said the Geneva-based body in its biennial study of the global epidemic.

However, India's overall rate of adult infections paled compared with South Africa's because of the relative size of the population of the two countries. While 18.8% of

S African adults live with HIV, the figure in India is 0.9%. Overall, Indian HIV cases accounted for two-thirds of Asia's total.

Estimates of total deaths in India, since AIDS was first indentified globally in 1981, range from 270,000 to 680,000. Most of the infections were caused by unprotected heterosexual intercourse, according to UNAIDS.

Southern Indian states have traditionally been the hardest hit by the disease: in Tamilnadu, for example, an HIV rate of 50% exists among prostitutes.