By IANS
New Delhi : The number of people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in India has taken a sharp dip from 5.2 million to 2.5 million, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said Friday.
The new 2006 estimates released jointly by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), World Health Organisation and UNAIDS said that the prevalence of HIV among the adult population in India is approximately 0.36 percent.
"The revised estimate has taken into account both the data provided by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)- III and the sentinel data collected by over 1,100 centres across the country," Ramadoss said.
Earlier figures were only from the nearly 700 data collection centres across the country.
"It's a good news for the country as a whole but we are not complacent at all and the National Aids Control Programme-III will focus more on the ailment to bring a better result within the next five years.
"This is all because of an accurate and revised data collection which is more accurate and reliable," the minister added.
With this revised estimate, India slides from its second position to the third in the HIV infected country list. While South Africa is at the top of the list, Nigeria will now be in the second slot.