'India tops world in HIV, rabies'

Comparing HIV with rabies, UNAIDS today said that in both cases India topped the world and if rabies infections do not affect India's world image, then neither should HIV infections.

UNAIDS representative Daniel Brown was speaking at a joint press conference called by National Aids Control Organisation to clear the controversy over the disagreement between the Union health minister and UNAIDS over HIV infections in the country.

UNAIDS recently projected the number of HIV cases in the country as 5.7 million - the highest in the world, while the official NACO estimates are 5.2 million. Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had criticised the UNAIDS estimates.

Brown also said that while the estimates may be the highest in the world, percentage wise India had .9 per cent cases as per the official figures, while as per UNAIDS figures, the percentage was lower at .6 per cent.

The percentage prevalence was 19 per cent in South Africa whose HIV infection rates India has overtaken as per the UNAIDS estimates.

Brown also asserted that NACO was never kept in the dark about the new methodology used to arrive at the higher estimate. "There may be a communication gap," he said.