NACO disputes NGO's figures on AIDS infection rate

NACO disputes NGO's figures on AIDS infection rate
SANCHITA SHARMA

NEW DELHI, FEB 17: AIDS infection averages a high 8.2 per cent in some pockets of rural Rajasthan, largely in areas from where workers have migrated to Mumbai. These are the findings of Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB), a Swiss NGO that has been testing and counselling people in the rural districts of Jaipur and Jodhpur for the past two years.

``Infection has touched 13.1 per cent in some areas, and what makes these statistics even more worrying is that they come from a region where AIDS prevalence is supposed to be low,'' says Countess Albina du Boisrouvray, founder of FXB.

But there aren't many takers for this alarming figure. ``The FXB figures are for a skewed sample and not an index of AIDS prevalence in the general population because those going to voluntary testing centres and STD clinics are people who have indulged in high-risk activity and suspect being infected,'' says J.V.R. Prasada Rao, Director, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). ``It's like going to a cardiology clinic and saying 50 per cent of the Indian population have a heart disorder.'' NACO's figures for Rajasthan are 1.72 among rural men and 0.021 among rural women.

FXB found that infection rates are similar among men and women, which shows that the disease had moved from the high-risk group to the general population. ``Many people infected in villages are missed as most of the Government's AIDS surveillance, detection and counselling sites are in urban areas,'' says Anil Purohit, Executive Director, FXB.

Ninety-eight per cent of those infected were people who had migrated to Mumbai in search of work. ``Our experience in the past two years has shown that Government messages are not reaching the people as AIDS awareness in the region was completely lacking before we started working there,'' says Purohit.

Rajasthan anyway has a poor awareness record. While the National Family Health Survey-2 released last year said 40 per cent women in India had heard of AIDS, the Rajasthan average was just over 20 per cent, half of the national average. This included urban populations, and awareness was still lower among rural and illiterate women.

Primary Health Centres play no role in spreading awareness because they are not accessed by villagers. ``A major hurdle is the popularity of quacks, and most people look for cure in mixtures and powders doled out by quacks who know as little about AIDS as their patients,'' says Dr K. C. Joshi, Outreach Programme Site Director, Jodhpur.

The FXB Foundation has a budget of US $ 425,000 for its India programme. The Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation has further donated US$ 300,000 for a three-year project in Rajasthan for training volunteers, counselling people with AIDS, and treating sexually-transmitted diseases.

``It's time to intervene so that India can contain the epidemic like Thailand and Uganda and does not have a fate similar to that of Africa, where 50 per cent of the population is countries like Rwanda are infected,'' says Countess Albina. This fortnight, she will be touring 12 programme centres of FXB in Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Mumbai and Goa along with Price Michael of Kent, who is FXB's UK patron.