NEW DELHI: The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) will open 400 more testing centres in several States across the country, primarily in the Central and Northern parts including the densely populated Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The other states where such sentinel sites would be opened for detecting the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among pregnant women and people suffering from sexually transmitted diseases are Rajasthan, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, NACO Director General Sujata Rao told reporters here on Sunday.

With this, the number of testing centres would go up from 750 to 1,150, Ms Rao said at the conclusion of a three-day National Conference on Research in HIV/AIDS — Gaps, Priorities and Strategies.

5.2 million affected

The annual sentinel surveillance conducted in 706 sites across the country has shown 5.2 million people living with HIV -- an increase of 72,000 against the previous year. This gives an adult prevalence of 0.91 per cent. Of the estimated adults living with HIV, 38.4 per cent were females, 57 per cent were from rural background. The HIV prevalence was more than one per cent among antenatal mothers in 95 districts, including nine districts in the low prevalence States. Similarly, HIV prevalence was more than 10 per cent in 34 sexually transmitted diseases sites across the country.

The survey covered Antenatal Clinic attendees (394), STD clinic attendees (175), female sex workers (83), injecting drug users (30), men having sex with men (19), tuberculosis patients (4) and migrants (1). A total 225,292 individuals were screened and 6,475 were found to be positive for HIV.

The HIV prevalence among the sexually transmitted diseases patients increased significantly over the previous year in Delhi, Rajasthan and Orissa but the number fell significantly below 1 per cent in Tamil Nadu. The prevalence in Nagaland and Manipur showed an increase.

In Tamil Nadu, the percentage of sex workers and other high risk groups testing positive for the virus had come down to 0.9 per cent, from 2.3 per cent.

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