UNAIDS Report: HIV infections in India register significant decrease

21 November 2013 | News | By Rahul Koul Koul

UNAIDS Report: HIV infections in India register significant decrease

The UNAIDS report has appreciated India for bringing down the number of newly infected adults between 2000 and 2009. It comes as a major boost for the researchers, government, healthcare workers and those who are vulnerable to it. 

"With 80 per cent of these drugs being generics purchased in India, several billion dollars have been saved over the past five years. The country is also committed to new forms of partnership with low-income countries through innovative support mechanisms and South South cooperation," the UNAIDS report says.

It also points out that India already provides substantial support to neighbouring countries and other Asian countries - in 2011, it allocated USD 430 million to 68 projects in Bhutan across key socio-economic sectors, including health, education and capacity-building. In 2011 at Addis Ababa, the Government of India further committed to accelerating technology transfer between its pharmaceutical sector and African manufacturers

Though rate of HIV transmission in Asia is slowing down, atleast 1,000 new infections among adults continue to be reported in the continent every day in 2011. An estimated 3,60,000 adults were newly infected with HIV in Asia in 2011, considerably fewer than 4,40,000 estimated for 2001, report has said.

At the same time, it has mentioned that some smaller countries in Asia like Afghanistan and Philippines are experiencing increases in the number of people acquiring HIV infection. It said a total 17 lakh people had died across the world due to AIDS related illness. In India, the figure for such deaths stood at 1.7 lakh in 2009.

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