India's High Stakes AIDS Fight

[Guest guest]

India's High Stakes AIDS Fight

MUMBAI, India, March 2, 2006

(CBS) CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports on the

struggle to curb India's AIDS epidemic in part three of a special

series, India: Land of Contrasts.

More than 5 million people are living with HIV in India today —

that's the population of Chicago and Houston combined. If nothing is

done to slow the disease, the World Bank fears it will reach 35 million

Indians by 2015, reports CBS News correspondent Lara Logan.

The fight to stop AIDS from spiraling out of control centers on the

highest risk elements of society. HIV rates among truckers are five

times above the national infection rate, and most have no idea they are

infected.

Four million truckers crisscross India every day. Economic prosperity

has brought better roads, but ironically that's also helped the disease

travel faster — and wider. Now India's AIDS epidemic is second only

to South Africa.

After a very slow start, it seems the Indian government has finally

woken up to the problem. But that's 20 years too late for Dr. Ishwar

Gilada. He began the first AIDS awareness program back in 1985, battling

AIDS from the trenches of Mumbai's red light district.

Gilada discovered AIDS was rampant among the city's sex workers, half of

whom have since died of the disease. " This was the AIDS capital of

India, " Gilada says. " The first AIDS case was diagnosed from here. "

Today, sex workers are encouraging AIDS testing, treatment and,

crucially, safe sex. " They're using condoms, they're protecting

themselves, they're protecting their clients, " says Gilada.

Ground zero in the fight against AIDS in India today is the filthy

crowded streets of red light districts. The sex worker industry is the

main source of India's AIDS problem, so the strategy is to target these

high risk communities and try to control the disease by attacking it at

its source.

That strategy pioneered by Gilada in Mumbai has succeeded in

dramatically bringing down infection rates among sex workers. It's

become the model for programs across India, and may signal, he says, the

way forward.

But the stakes for India are so high former President Bill Clinton,

who's working with Indian drug companies to make cheaper treatment

available in developing countries, says that the world has a duty to

help.

" If, let's say they have 5 to 6 million AIDS cases today, it'd be easy

for them to have 50 million in no time at all, if you don't have

education and testing and treatment in an aggressive way. "

Mr. Clinton says he was initially very discouraged by India's attention

to AIDS, but not any more. The government seems to be getting a handle

on the scale of their problem.

" The fact that their medical profession is committed, that the

government is committed, they have a plan now, this I think will be a

very big year in India. "

In a country of over a billion people, everyone hopes Mr. Clinton is

right.

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. .

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