India says HIV infections' on the decrease

India, which has the second highest number of HIV-infected people, says its awareness drive is getting through and says it has seen a dramatic slowdown in the number of new infections.

Officials at the health ministry say initial estimates have shown that only 28,000 people became infected in 2004, compared to 520,000 in 2003.

The federal health ministry attributes the slowdown to the success of its health awareness campaign.

They say their government has been carrying out widespread Aids awareness programmes for many years and the effect is finally showing in the lower growth rate of new infections.

In 2004, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was 5.13m, putting the country second only to South Africa.

Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, the Health and Family Welfare Minister says there would be an independent assessment of the estimates before a final figure could be released.

Ramadoss says HIV prevalence had significantly risen in many states, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Pondicherry, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Manipur and Kerala.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) forecast of 20m Indians with HIV/AIDS by 2010, has been dismissed by Indian health officials who say there is no evidence of such an upsurge, and they point out that prevalence of HIV infection in the adult Indian population (0.91%) is far lower than South Africa's 21.5% .

However, the ministry says there was "no room for complacency".

Some global experts agree with the CIA forecast that the country is facing an epidemic, but Indian health officials have rejected the claim. Many voluntary groups say there is still a huge stigma is attached to HIV-positive people in India and many refuse to reveal that they are infected. There is also a considerable lack of awareness about the illness.

The data for 2004 showed the disease had spread into rural areas which accounts for nearly 60 percent of all infections and to date around 2 million women are now infected. A major concern is that married women are being increasingly infected by husbands who caught the virus through extramarital sex.