India sees major reductions in HIV infections says UN report

New Delhi, July 20: India is progressing on health path as a UN report says that that the country has seen a major reduction in the number of new HIV infections, AIDS-related deaths and people living with HIV from 2010 to 2017 on the back of sustained and focused efforts, according to a UN report.

 

The Joint UN Agency on AIDS (UNAIDS) report titled 'Miles to go - closing gaps, breaking barriers, righting injustices' said Asia and the Pacific regions have made strong inroads with its HIV response. The report said that in India, new HIV infections dropped from one lakh twenty thousand in 2010 to Eighty-eight thousand in 2017, AIDS-related deaths reduced from one lakh sixty thousand to Sixty Nine Thousands and people living with HIV from Twenty three lakhs to Twenty-one Lakhs in the same time period.

The report also added that India has an approved social protection strategy, policy or framework that is being implemented, it said. Sustained and focused efforts to reach key populations have led to major reductions in HIV infections in Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam between 2010 and 2017.

The report, however, warned that the global new HIV infections were not declining fast enough. It also noted that the epidemics were expanding in Pakistan and the Philippines. The report also found that countries that had decriminalized at least some aspects of sex work have fewer sex workers living with HIV than countries that criminalize all aspects of sex work.