Thakur questions AIDS figures at UN

NEW YORK, JUNE 28. Carrying the battle against inflated AIDS- related figures on India to the UN, the Health Minister, Mr. C.P. Thakur, questioned the numbers given by some NGOs and said the country had been able to contain the disease to a large extent.

``I would like to know from where they (NGOs) got it (the figures),'' Mr. Thakur questioned at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Stating that the numbers given by these NGOs were three-to-five- times higher, Mr. Thakur said the Government figures were based on scientific surveys and took into the account the margin error. In fact, these were on the higher end of the margin, he said.

Last week, a controversy on the statistics had erupted when, at a press conference in Delhi, Mr. Thakur said that the number of children orphaned due to AIDS in the country as given by a UN fact sheet was not correct.

Against the UN figure of 5,60,000 AIDS-related orphans, Mr. Thakur had said that the number stood at 60,000- 70,000.

On Wednesday, Mr. Thakur said that though the number of HIV- infected people had risen sharply during the 1990s, the increase had slowed down now.

There were 3.5 million HIV/AIDS cases in 1998, which rose to 3.7 millions in 1999 and to 3.86 millions in 2000, he said, adding the trend had not become negative yet but fears of ``runaway'' increase in number of cases had been belied.

To further curb the menace, the Government was planning measures such as providing health education to adolescents and opening counselling centres.

- PTI

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : 'Indo-Israeli relations excellent'
Next     : India, Turkey to join hands against terrorism