India to Step Up Campaign Against HIV/AIDS

India will provide free antiretroviral treatment to about 100,000 patients by early next year, Sujata Rao, the top official in the country's AIDS control program, recently told reporters.

India has the largest number of HIV cases in the world, with 5.7 million people already infected. To combat the epidemic, the country is escalating its campaign against HIV/AIDS. Health authorities will scale up a safe sex promotion campaign; popularize the use of condoms; and expand the network of treatment centers to reach people in the six Indian states with the highest HIV prevalence, said Rao.

"We are also creating awareness among people in schools, colleges, and through the media on what causes HIV," Rao said. "Once people know that AIDS is treatable, although not curable, it will reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with the disease."

"By August, we will be able to reach antiretroviral therapy drugs to around 85,000 people infected with the virus," Rao told journalists. "But by early 2007, we will have drugs made available to 100,000 people with HIV."

Health Ministry figures show the country has allotted an annual budget of 9 billion rupees ($200 million US) for HIV/AIDS prevention programs in the 2006-07 fiscal year.

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