Indian archbishop 'confused' by reduction in HIV estimates

Published: 2007-07-12

BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- The head of the Indian bishops' health care commission said he was perplexed by national and international health agencies' reduction in the estimated number of HIV-positive people in India. Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore said he was "confused by the sharp and sudden decline (in the estimates) while there is no change in the ground reality at all." "These figures will certainly lead to complacency. There is no doubt it," the archbishop told Catholic News Service July 9. Three days earlier, the National AIDS Control Organization of India, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization announced the number of HIV-positive people in India is now estimated to be between 2 million and 3.1 million. In a May 2006 global aids report, UNAIDS had said that India, with 5.7 million HIV/AIDS cases, had overtaken South Africa with 5.6 million as the nation with most HIV/AIDS cases. At the time, Indian Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had disputed the figures. Archbishop Moras said reducing the estimates by nearly half "gives out a wrong signal" to the public and those in the field that the situation is not as bad as it was thought. He also said the new estimates "would certainly impact international funding" for HIV programs in India.

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