Parliamentary committee seeks validation of NACO’s AIDS figures

March 14, 2008

Parliamentary committee seeks validation of NACO's AIDS figures

Special Correspondent

Underestimates can result in the problem being ignored, says PAC

report. Inflated figures may take resources away from other health

programmes Hopes ICTCs will act as a single window service to cater

to all clients

NEW DELHI: Raising doubts over the reliability of the new data on

HIV/AIDS prevalence in India released by the National AIDS Control

Organisation (NACO), a Parliamentary panel has sought validation of

these figures.

The Public Accounts Committee in its 63rd report, tabled in

Parliament on Thursday, has said its concern to have Sentinel

Surveillance Network based on a systematic and scientific approach

had not been adequately addressed by the Union Health and Family

Welfare Ministry. The apprehension of the committee has increased,

especially in the light of the recent slashing of official estimates

of HIV/AIDS prevalence in India.

As per the official figures, the national adult prevalence of

HIV/AIDS in India is approximately 0.36 per cent, amounting to

between 2 and 3.1 million people or an average of 2.5 million people.

This clearly indicated that the figure has almost come down to 50 per

cent of the 2004 figure of 5.14 million. However, the committee feels

that the reliability of this data needs to be validated as inflated

figures can be used to take resources and energy away from equally

important health programmes and at the same time, underestimates can

result in the problem being ignored, the report has said.

Therefore, it is necessary to identify an appropriate agency or an

authority and to have a realistic data with periodic revision which

is acceptable to all International Health Organisations such as

Global AIDS Programme, Global Health Council, International

Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, UNAIDS, and the

World Health Organisation.

As regards setting up of integrated counselling and testing centres

(ICTCs), the panel hoped that these would function as a single window

service to cater to the requirements of all the needy clients.

It also asked the Ministry to provide state-of-the-art equipment and

adequate number of qualified technical manpower so that these Centres

could provide quality services.

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