NEW DELHI (PTI): In Bombay Metropolis, one man is getting infected by deadly Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) every 15 minutes, according to Dr.Khorshed Pavri, director of the Center for AIDS Research and Control.
“This is the most conservative estimate of HIV infection among male clients of female prostitutes in the city’s red light area,” she says in her new book, “Challenge of AIDS.”
The estimate is based on the assumption that one fourth of the 60,000 prostitutes in the city are infected with HIY and each female has six clients a day and that one out of 1,000 sexual contracts results in Transmission of the virus.
According to Dr: Pavn the rate of infection is actually more “as each of these infected men is responsible for further extending the chain of HIV transmission.” Dr.Pavri says that “greatest attention needs to be paid to men in the 15-35 age group who create high risk situations” instead of directing the educational campaigns only to the prostitutes. In India, where even the control of diseases which are easily preventable by vaccines is not very effective, it is difficult to envisage control of AIDS through specific vaccine, she says. Meanwhile, a report by Dr.D.Banerji of the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) has accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of making sweeping statements about HIV infection in India “without any basis.” Dr.Banerji, an expert on community medicine, says who has created confusion by singling out India and Thailand as countries which will have explosive AIDS epidemic. These sweeping conclusions by who constituents were made using unreliable data and by €extrapolation without actually conducting “a comparative epidemiological study,” he says.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 22, 1993
