HIV/AIDS in India

With a population of over one billion, and more than 4.5 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, the HIV epidemic in India will have a major impact on the overall spread of HIV in Asia, the Pacific, and around the world. India is second only to South Africa in terms of the overall number of people living with the disease. Although the overall average adult prevalence rate is 0.8 percent, there are considerably higher prevalence rates in some geographic areas around trucking routes, the brothel-based commercial sex industry, and in vulnerable populations. Transmission of HIV within and from these groups drives the epidemic, but the infection is spreading to the general community. The epidemic is shifting toward women and young people, with about 25 percent of all HIV infections occurring in women.