India will have to scale up prevention of HIV to avoid having to spend an increasing share of its health budget on treatment of AIDS patients.
India will have to scale up prevention of HIV to avoid having to spend an increasing share of its health budget on treatment of AIDS patients, the World Bank has said.
India with 2.5 million patients is among the top three countries with the highest number of HIV cases, alongside South Africa and Nigeria. New Delhi spends about 5 percent of its $5.4 billion healthcare budget on treating AIDS patients. But with HIV cases showing signs of rising in the capital New Delhi, in the financial hub of Mumbai, in the north and the northeast, the cost of treatment in India could rise to $1.8 billion by 2020, about 7 percent of the total health expenditure, the World Bank says.
This would pose an enormous burden on the health care services and the budget in a country where malaria still kills hundreds of people every year and other health-sector challenges like non-communicable diseases are as sharp as AIDS, experts say. More than 15 percent of the 200,000 plus injectable drug users are HIV positive in the country against a global average of 10 percent, AIDS experts say. In some areas, HIV positive cases among injectable drug users have been found to be as high as 50 percent, health ministry officials quoting an ongoing survey said. This rise could fuel the spread of AIDS unless checked, the report said.
The World Bank quoting a recent study says in its report that about 36 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in India reported an income loss and increased expenditure on treatment.
"HIV is not a major threat to the current economic growth of India, but the welfare impact is significant and HIV disproportionately affects the poor," said Mariam Claeson, World Bank Program Coordinator (HIV/AIDS).
India with 2.5 million patients is among the top three countries with the highest number of HIV cases, alongside South Africa and Nigeria. New Delhi spends about 5 percent of its $5.4 billion healthcare budget on treating AIDS patients. But with HIV cases showing signs of rising in the capital New Delhi, in the financial hub of Mumbai, in the north and the northeast, the cost of treatment in India could rise to $1.8 billion by 2020, about 7 percent of the total health expenditure, the World Bank says.
This would pose an enormous burden on the health care services and the budget in a country where malaria still kills hundreds of people every year and other health-sector challenges like non-communicable diseases are as sharp as AIDS, experts say. More than 15 percent of the 200,000 plus injectable drug users are HIV positive in the country against a global average of 10 percent, AIDS experts say. In some areas, HIV positive cases among injectable drug users have been found to be as high as 50 percent, health ministry officials quoting an ongoing survey said. This rise could fuel the spread of AIDS unless checked, the report said.
The World Bank quoting a recent study says in its report that about 36 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in India reported an income loss and increased expenditure on treatment.
"HIV is not a major threat to the current economic growth of India, but the welfare impact is significant and HIV disproportionately affects the poor," said Mariam Claeson, World Bank Program Coordinator (HIV/AIDS).
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