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AIDS Rise May Force India to Spend More: World Bank
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Abstract
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| Unless India steps up efforts to prevent HIV, it will have to devote an increasing proportion of its health budget to treat those infected, the World Bank said on Sunday.
India currently spends about 5 percent of its health care budget on AIDS treatment. With signs of infections rising in the capital of New Delhi, in the financial hub of Mumbai, and in the north and northeast, treatment costs could rise to $1.8 billion in a decade. India’s total health budget today is $5.4 billion.
Under this scenario, HIV/AIDS would strain both the health care budget and services, experts said.
More than 15 percent of injection drug users (IDUs) in India are infected with HIV, compared with a global average of 10 percent. However, in some regions of India prevalence among IDUs is as high as 50 percent, according to ongoing surveys cited by health ministry officials.
“What we are worried about are the concentrated epidemics in the country among vulnerable groups in districts,” said Mariam Claeson, World Bank HIV/AIDS program coordinator. “Those concentrated epidemics can act as wildfires and therefore need to be targeted with effective prevention efforts.”
In addition, those infected potentially face economic losses that are a cumulative drag on national development, the bank noted. About 36 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in India report income loss and increased expenditures related to treatment.
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Subjects
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Asia
Financial Issues
HIV Positive Persons
HIV/AIDS Treatment or Therapies
Injecting Drug Users
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cdcnpin.org News Record #54916
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