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| In terms of prevalence rates, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland and Karnataka are now where South Africa was in 1992.
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| The country needs to accelerate the spread of information and remove the stigma associated with the disease, says a study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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| The study, jointly conducted by the Population Foundation of India and the US-based Population Reference Bureau, found that while close to 90 per cent of the people in urban areas have heard of HIV/AIDS, only about 72 per cent in rural areas have done so.
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| Alarmingly, heavily populated states like Bihar, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have shown low awareness levels. About 75 per cent of the women in rural areas in these states had never heard of HIV/AIDS.
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| The awareness about various modes of transmission and of different ways of preventing infection are also equally dismal, it found.
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| Television and radio, followed by friends and relatives were the most common ways in which married women received information about HIV/AIDS, indicating a serious deficiency in HIV education and the difficulty in reaching poor, rural people without regular access to the mass media, it said.
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| Emphasising the need to disseminate information at the local level, particularly in hard hit states and to remove the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV, the study points out that if it is not done now, India could see an epidemic similar to that of some African countries.
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| Such campaigns work well, said Carl Haub, Senior Demographer, Population Reference Bureau, citing the Ugandan example where emphasis on an educational campaign and mainstreaming those affected with the disease has reduced prevalence among pregnant women - considered low risk population - from 30.9 per cent in 1990 to 11.3 per cent in 2000. Removing stigma is important because it encourages people to go in for testing, he said.
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| AR Nanda, Executive Director, PFI, said that over 1 per cent of pregnant women at ante-natal clinics located at selected testing sites in India now test positive for HIV.
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| The trends in high-risk behaviour groups for HIV/AIDS reveal an alarming situation regarding the testing for infection at sexually transmitted diseases clinics in many states.
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| Also, upto 50 per cent of sex workers in sentinel sites cities are HIV positive. This is particularly alarming considering that only about 57 per cent of clients of female sex workers reported consistent condom use as per behavioural surveillance survey in 2001, he said. |
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