NEW DELHI: The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) has set up an expert committee to examine the validity of the assumptions and the module used by the UNAIDS in arriving at the conclusion that India had 5.7 million HIV/AIDS patients — the highest number in the world.

"We stand by our figure that there are 5.2 million HIV/AIDS patients in the age group of 15-49 years in the country because the data given by the UNAIDS is not validated for the Indian population," Director-General of NACO Sujatha Rao told reporters here on Friday. She said the module used by the UNAIDS was for all age groups and the agency also agreed with the NACO figure that there were 5.2 million HIV/AIDS people in the age group of 15-49 years.

Expected by February

The UNAIDS in its global report said there were 5.7 million HIV/AIDS-affected people in India, raising a controversy as it was also associated with the annual survey conducted by the NACO in ascertaining the number of patients. "The module used by the UNAIDS was used for the first time and it had added several assumptions in its module to arrive at the figure for all ages, including newborn," Ms. Rao said. The report of the expert committee was expected by February next year and if found feasible could be used by the NACO for its surveys in the future.

On his part, Denis Broun, country representative of the UNAIDS, said the estimates were based on global assumptions and did not mean they were necessarily accurate. The worldwide population and assumption figures were often wrong at the country level. Since India was a huge country, the assumptions have to be validated at the State and district level to get the estimated data. These were generalised figures, he said. "As for us [the UNAIDS], there is no controversy," Mr. Broun added.

Ms. Rao said India was bound to have the largest number of HIV/AIDS patients because of its large population, but its percentage was below 0.92. The figures were comparable only to China, where the survey was conducted only on the high-risk group and not according to the age group.

Passive surveillance

Regarding the estimation of deaths due to AIDS, she said the NACO was working on adopting the World Health Organisation/UNAIDS model. Presently the information regarding AIDS mortality was monitored through passive surveillance. As per the UNAIDS report, HIV/AIDS related mortality in India ranged from 270,000 to 680,000 in 2005.

This estimation used an assumption that average survival time from HIV infection to death was nine years in untreated population. "The NACO has already set up a national expert committee to initiate the process of mortality estimation using assumptions based on Indian population. The report is expected by December 2006," Ms. Rao said.

The Government was administering free anti-retroviral treatment to 35,000 patients across 52 centres, that will be expanded to 100 centres to cover 85,000 patients by July 31 and the figure would touch 100,000 by the end of March next year.

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