HIV infection rates decline by one-third in southern India, study finds

NEW DELHI (AP) - The number of HIV infections has fallen by more than a third among young people in southern India, the worst-hit region of the South Asian country, according to a study published Thursday in a leading medical journal. The 35 per cent drop in HIV cases among people aged 15 to 24 was the result of better prevention - and not due to deaths from AIDS, researchers from the University of Toronto said in a study published on the website of the Lancet, a leading British medical journal.

The researchers singled out efforts by the Indian government, the World Bank and other non-government groups to educate sex workers and men who frequent them about the dangers of HIV, efforts that "appear to have contributed to a drastic decline," in new infections.

The study was conducted by a team of Indian and Canadian researchers who tracked HIV prevalence among 204,050 young women and nearly 60,000 men between 2000 and 2004 in both the north and south of the country.

They found that the prevalence rate in the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which account for about 75 per cent of all India's HIV infections, fell from 1.7 per cent in 2000, to 1.1 per cent in 2004.

India has an estimated 5.13 million people with HIV, second only to South Africa, although the percentage of those with the AIDS-causing virus is much lower than in many parts of Africa, where the infection rate is well into the double digits.

Still, there are fears that ignorance and the stigma attached to the disease could hamper prevention efforts and lead to an explosion in new infections, especially in the south.

"HIV remains a huge problem in India and we have to remain vigilant," said Rajesh Kumar, one of the study's authors. "We're not saying the epidemic is under control yet - we are saying that prevention efforts with high-risk groups thus far seem to be having an effect."

In fact, another of the report's authors, Prabhat Jha, warned: "The not-so-good news is that trends in the north remain uncertain and poorly studied."

The study recommends enhancing surveillance and more testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

© The Canadian Press,