‘Control AIDS by 2007 or face dire health consequences’. This is the warning given to India by the Ashok Alexander, director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation‘s Indian HIV-prevention project.
He said that the HIV in India is going out of control. The government has spent $258-million on anti-AIDS operations in over 100 districts in the country in last 10 years. Still the HIV virus are been spreading at an alarming rate and 5.7 million Indians have become AIDS patients until yet.
He said further that the government controlled National AIDS Control Organization’s (NACO) inefficieny and lack of will power is a major impediment to the AIDS-control programs in India.
In addition, Denis Broun, a top UN official, warned that the HIV virus presently affects 0.9% of India’s populations. But in the next 5-10 years, it could infect up to 3% of India’s population.
According to UNAIDS report, India has now the highest number of AIDS patients than South Africa, once termed as AIDS capital of India.
