HIV/AIDS – India   An overview

AIDS considered as the modern pandemic of the world and    With more than 5 million people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS, India’s HIV/AIDS prevalence is second in the world only to South Africa.

The Government of India estimates that in 2006, about 2.45 million Indians were living with HIV (1.75 – 3.15 million) with an adult prevalence rate of 0.41%. India’s highly heterogeneous epidemic is largely concentrated in six states – in the industrialized south and west, and in the north-eastern tip. On average, HIV prevalence in those states is 4-5 times higher than in the other Indian states. (more…)

In another setback for the fight against AIDS, a microbicide to protect women against infection has failed in the largest trial of its kind, researchers said Monday.

That failure, several researchers said, was the last nail in the coffin for this type of microbicide — gels containing molecules that clump around the virus before it reaches the vaginal wall. Attention is now turning to gels and rings that release constant doses of antiretroviral drugs to kill the virus or stop it from reproducing.

The trial took four years and involved 9,385 women in four African countries. Known by the nickname MDP 301 (for Microbicides Development Program), the trial was overseen by the British Medical Research Council, which announced the results.

The gel had no effect: 4.1 percent of those who used it were infected, as were 4 percent of those who used a placebo.

“It is bitterly disappointing for us, but it will inform the way we go forward,” Dr. Sheena McCormack, the trial’s chief investigator, said in an interview.     (more…)