Official Indian AIDS figures in dispute

A claim by AIDS expert Richard Feachem, that India now has the most HIV-positive people in the world has been dismissed by the Indian government.

Feachem says figures showing India having fewer cases than South Africa are wrong. Mr Feachem, the executive director of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, says that the epidemic in India is spreading rapidly and little is being done to stop it.

The Delhi government says there are 5.1 million cases in India but according to independent experts the lack of reliable data means the number of people infected in India could be anywhere between 2.5 million and 8.5 million.

The United Nations says that South Africa has 5.3 million people infected with the AIDS virus.

SY Qureshi, chief of India's government-controlled National AIDS Control Organisation says the claim by Feachem is "nonsense". He says they acknowledge that HIV/AIDS is a serious problem, are aware of the gravity of the situation and have programmes to deal with it.

Qureshi says their surveillance systems are certified by the World Health Organisation, UN agency UNAIDS and the Indian Council of Medical Research [ICMR] and they stand by their figure of 5.1 million.

The official figure has been questioned by both Indian and international groups working to prevent HIV/AIDS.

According to Anjali Gopalan of the Naz Foundation, a non-government organisation working with HIV-infected people, the statistics do not look reliable.She says they have seen the numbers of the infected grow rapidly and each and every confirmed case hides at least two more. This means the number of infected could be as high as 15 million.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS has committed more than $3bn to 300 programmes in 127 countries for combating HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.