MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (SMT. SUSHMA SWARAJ)
(a) to (h) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 40 FOR 03-12-2003.
The National AIDS Control Organisation, Government of India, conducts nation wide HIV sentinel surveillance every year during the period August-October, to monitor the trends of HIV infection in different risk groups and to estimate the burden of HIV infection in the country. The estimated number of HIV infections in the country is about 4.58 million at the end of year 2002, which is second highest in the world after South Africa. However, the overall prevalence of HIV infection remains less than 1% in the general population. There is no estimate that India is likely to have 25 million HIV infections by 2006.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in December, 2000, with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to provide and accelerate efforts to develop an indigenous AIDS Vaccine that will address the strain of the HIV-1 subtype C predominant in India. This work is being carried out by two ICMR institutions namely, National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune and National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata.
For the effective implementation of the National AIDS Control Programme, Government of India has already established 38 State AIDS Control Societies in each of the State and Union Territories and three Municipal Corporations namely, Chennai, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The programme has following components:
- Preventive interventions for high-risk populations through targeted interventions adopting a multi-pronged strategy including peer counseling and behaviour change communication.
- Preventive interventions for the general population through programmes for blood safety, voluntary counseling and testing services, information education and communication (IEC), provision of prevention of Parent to Child Transmission for preventing HIV among new born children and awareness building among adolescents.
- Provision of low cost care and support services by providing community care services, treatment of opportunistic infections and prevention of occupational exposure.
- Collaborative efforts to promote inter-sectoral programme activities including interventions and public-private partnerships.
- Building technical and managerial capacities for programme implementation through surveillance, training, monitoring & evaluation, technical resource groups, operational research and programme management.
