Malaria and HIV/AIDS cases fall in India
Number of cases down by 40% in a decade
Malaria cases have come down by more than 40% over the past 10 years in India, to 1.18 million in 2011 (Jan–Nov) compared with 2.09 million in 2001. The lower incidence of the disease has been attributed to the concerted effort of the central and state governments who provide antimalaria medicine and aid for the malaria programmes, World Bank-funded projects and high quality combination drugs manufactured by Indian pharmaceutical companies.
Meanwhile, India’s national response to HIV/AIDS, implemented through the National AIDS Control Programme, has shown significant results. During the past decade HIV infections have declined by 56%, according to Ghulam Nabi Azad, minister, Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, addressing the International HIV Vaccine Symposium in New Delhi in August 2012.
In 2011, there were 44.2 million people living with AIDS, marginally up from 33.5 million in 2010. More people are alive globally because 8 million people are on antiretroviral therapy, compared with a few thousand a decade ago.
Generic drugs from India have resulted in the price of a year’s supply of antiretroviral therapy dropping from $10,000 per person per year in 2000, to less than $100 per person per year. UNAIDS has credited India with helping the world to battle AIDS.
In a report, it said: ‘India has contributed enormously to the AIDS response through its capacity to manufacture generic antiretroviral drugs in the private sector. With 80% of these drugs being generics purchased in India, several billion dollars have been saved over the past five years.’