The Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare has contested the media projections on the spread of AIDS epidemic and has asked the sources to share the details on which the estimations are based.

According to a statement issued by Shatrughan Sinha, Union Health Minister, there are around four million people living with HIV in the country. “It is however, completely inaccurate to claim that India will have over 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS by 2010,” he has said. As the data-set and information on the epidemiology and demography of HIV/AIDS available with the ministry indicates a lesser growth pattern the minister requested all concerned to share the details on which these projected estimations are based.

“We have come across press reports quoting alarming figures regarding prevalence and spread of HIV/AIDS in India. Having taken a number of initiatives and put in place many targeted interventions to generate awareness and to educate the public, we do not wish to contribute to unnecessary panic and alarm,” the minister stated.

Nationally, the prevalence of HIV continues to be categorised as low. There may be pockets of high infection - six states of India have a generalised epidemic. In these states, there are also a few districts where there is only about two per cent prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the general population, the statement said.

The minister also pointed out that the rest of the country with low prevalence of HIV/AIDS has high vulnerability on account of factors like lower levels of awareness, high migration to high-risk states for economic betterment, high levels of multi-partner sex/needle exchange and high Incidence of untreated STDs. He informed that the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) is carefully targeting each of these aspects.