21.40 lakh people living with HIV in 2017, over two-fifth of them women

New Delhi: India had an estimated 21.40 lakh people living with HIV in 2017, with slightly more than two-fifth of them being women, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) said on Friday.

It said the annual new HIV infection cases have declined by more than 60 per cent since 2000, but the rate of decline between 2010 and 2017 have been 27 per cent, far behind the pace needed to reach the 2020 target of 75 per cent reduction in new cases of such infection.

Around 87,580 new HIV infections and 69,110 AIDS-related deaths occurred last year, the HIV Estimations 2017 report stated. "The results of the 2017 round of HIV Estimations confirm the national declining trend in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths corroborating India's success story in curbing the epidemic," the report stated, but stressed that there is "no place for complacency" as new HIV infections are "stable to rising" in some locations.

"Between 2010 and 2017, new infections have declined only by 27 per cent. While this is better than the global average of 16 per cent, a new impetus is clearly needed to fast track HIV prevention efforts to achieve the 75 per cent reduction in new infections by 2020 against the 2010 baseline," it stated.

The number of new infection cases are declining nationally, except for five states -- Arunachal Pradesh (65 per cent), Assam (37 per cent), Mizoram (18 per cent), Meghalaya (10 per cent) and Uttarakhand (four per cent) where such cases increased last year in comparison to 2010.

In Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Nagaland, the decline has been 10 per cent or less.

According to the report, HIV incidence per 1,000 uninfected population in 2017 was highest in Mizoram (1.32) followed by Nagaland (0.59) and Manipur (0.58).

The incidence rate is the number of new cases per population at risk in a given time period. Telangana, Chandigarh, Delhi, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Daman and Diu and Puducherry had HIV incidence per 1000 uninfected population in the range of 0.11 and 0.26.

Sustained commitment and much more vigorous actions are needed to reach the ambitious prevention and treatment targets set for 2020 in view of ending AIDS by 2030,

the HIV Estimations 2017 report stated.