HIV/AIDS prevalence updates for India and China

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 30 2011

HIV/AIDS in China

According to health officials the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in China is soaring. The rates are especially high among college students and older men. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued figures showing 48,000 new cases in China in 2011, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Xinhua added that 82 percent of those new cases were transmitted through sexual intercourse. This is up from 11.6 percent between 1985 and 2005. Wu Zunyou, the director of the Center said, “The distribution of HIV/AIDS cases in our country is now wider and more scattered than ever, posing great difficulties for prevention and control efforts.”

The Center adds that the number of HIV positive men 60 and above soared from 483 in 2005 to 3,031 in 2010, or 8.9 percent of the total HIV cases in the country. That same age group accounted for 2,546 of all AIDS cases, or 11 percent. Infections among male college students between the ages of 20 and 24 have also risen, it said.

The number of officially registered HIV carriers and AIDS patients in China is expected to jump from 346,000 to 780,000 by the end of 2011 after the data is updated, Xinhua reported. China has geared up the fight, spending more on prevention programs, launching schemes to give universal access to anti-retroviral drugs to contain the disease, and introducing policies to curb discrimination.

HIV/AIDS in India

According to a statement issued by the World Bank (WB) on Wednesday, India may avert nearly three million HIV infections by 2015.

Stating that target intervention programmes among high-risk groups have had a significant impact in high-prevalence states including Maharashtra, the World Bank has released the findings of two studies conducted early this year. Mariam Laeson, World Bank regional coordinator in South Asia for HIV/AIDS adds, “These studies and their findings have not been widely disseminated. The WB is using the opportunity of World AIDS day to share the learnings from India, globally.”

About 20% of the HIV/Aids-hit patients in India live in Maharashtra, and prevalence in the state dropped from 1.08% in 2002 to 0.67% in 2007. The ‘Impact evaluation study’ conducted in the high prevalence states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu links target intervention to decline in prevalence.

Another study, ‘Cost-effectiveness Analysis’, advocates target intervention as an effective strategy for India. Both studies have been conducted by independent researchers, and were published earlier in 2011.

Researchers say the drop in prevalence is associated with a significant increase in consistent condom use. Among the women in districts with targeted interventions, HIV prevalence declined by more than 50% from 1.9% in 2001 to 0.8% in 2008. However, in districts that do not have targeted intervention projects, the infection rate has remained constant at 0.9 percent in both 2001 and 2008.

Since 1991, the World Bank has spent more than $640 million for India’s HIV response in collaboration with National AIDS Control Organization (NACO).