Health Education AIDS Liaison, Toronto
Times of India scoff at
560,000 Aids Orphans claim
Memo from the Joint Action Council Kannur (JACK):
On June 21st, UNAIDS and the Health Ministry called a joint press
conference - to get more of the media talking about AIDS obviously. Well
they did make news - but not in the way they intended.
The morning of the press conference, we called Srilatha Menon of Indian
Express (who had not received an invitation) – and informed her that in
the data sheet prepared for the UNGASS, UNAIDS had stated that India had
5,60,000 AIDS orphans. This contradicts the Indian government's own
statistics.
So at the press conference, attended by a huge number of senior
journalists, representing practically every publication, Srilatha asked
Dr. David Miller, the Country Representative of UNAIDS where they got
these figures of AIDS orphans from. He had no answer. The Indian Health
Minister, Dr. Thakur handed over the issue to Mr. Rao, director NACO -
who said that according to the government data there were only 17,000
AIDS cases, but they had not issued any figures of AIDS orphans.
This got the journalists present really agitated. Dr. Miller was asked
why they were distorting facts and running down this country - and also
whether UNAIDS would now withdraw this figure. Dr. Miller replied that
he needed to check with Geneva before saying anything
As expected, this made big news - the next day, in most newspapers - as
the following front page news item from the Times of India demonstrates.
Besides, this is bound to create a first hand understanding of the
numbers game, for most of the mainstream journalists present at the
meeting - making them much more receptive to alternative veiws.
best wishes,
Anju
The Joint Action Council Kannur is an umbrella organization for a group of NGOs in Kannur District of Kerala, India. email: hifd@bol.net.in
Times of India June 22, 2001
India's AIDS figures just don't add up
By A Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: A controversy is brewing over the number of AIDS-related
deaths in India. The National Aids Control Organisation puts the figure
at about 17,000.
But UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, said in a
fact sheet to be presented at the UN General Assembly special session in
New York from June 25 to 27, that there were 5.6 lakh [560,000] children orphaned
due to the disease. In effect, this means more than 11 lakh [1,100,000] people have
died so far in the country.
The discrepancy came to light during a press conference hosted by UNAIDS
to launch a report on HIV/AIDS on Thursday whereupon a furore broke out
among journalists.
When questioned on this mismatch in figures, UNAIDS country programme
advisor David Miller refused to comment. He said, "The figure in the
fact sheet is just an estimate. I do not want to be drawn in the
controversy at this stage."
Asked what the source of the estimate was, he said, "I cannot disclose
the source. I will have to speak to my colleagues in Geneva about it."
Throughout the country, the AIDS surveillance and data collection on
AIV/AIDS figures is being handled solely by NACO. NACO chief J V R
Prasada Rao said there were no estimates on the number of AIDS orphans
in India.
Later in the day, a UNAIDS statement faxed to this newspaper office said
the number of orphans given in the fact sheet due to an oversight. It
also said NACO and UNAIDS were currently in the process of estimating
figures for HIV/AIDS orphans which should finish by the end of this
year.
Union health and family welfare minister C P Thakur said the government
did not have the resources to provide anti-retroviral drugs for HIV
treatment for free. He said, ``Very soon to prevent transmission from
mother to child, AZT therapy will be a part of our national agenda.''
At the moment, only a few centres in the country give the AZT therapy to
prevent an HIV positive pregnant woman from passing the virus on to her
newborn child.
According to NACO, about one per cent of pregnant women attending
ante-natal clinics in south India were found to be HIV positive,
indicating a ``generalized epidemic.''
In the rest of the world, as per the UNAIDS report, about 36.1 million
people were living with HIV and about 21.8 million people had died of it
so far.
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