- UNAIDS has in its epidemiological factsheets, brought out regularly since '97, carried estimates of hiv/aids in India from '87 onwards. It shows an incredible jump in hiv/aids cases from just one in 1986 to 5.19 lakh in 1987. No one's sure where these figures came from. Both unaids and naco were non-existent at the time. Neither was any credible surveillance system in place in India.
- The 73rd parliamentary standing committee report on dreaded diseases, released in October 1998, put the number of those infected by hiv at 81.3 lakh. For the same year, the projection by naco and unaids was 40-50 lakh cases.
- In September 1999, the figure of 85 lakh hiv/aids cases in India was quoted in the UN General Assembly.
- The World Bank project appraisal document for proposed credit for the second phase of the national hiv/aids control project in 1999 made sweeping assumptions about the spread of the disease and the means to reduce it. One postulation was that one per cent of India's sexually active female population is involved in commercial sex work.
- In June and December 2000, unaids released hiv/aids data for India in 1999. It quoted 3.10 lakh aids deaths in 1999. The number of aids orphans was 5.58 lakh. Both figures were subsequently deleted in the revised update released in June 2001.
- NACO figures are at extreme variance. Cumulative deaths due to aids from 1986 to December 2000 was 1,759.
Back From The Dead
The great Indian AIDS crisis now looks a case of statistical blunders and NGOs weaned on a share of the grants
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Back From The Dead
Back From The Dead
