HIV sero-positivity among attendees of various services under HIV prevention and control program in India

Damodar Bachani, National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)
Ruchi Sogarwal, National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)
K. Sujatha Rao, AS&DG, National AIDS Control Organisation, INDIA

The common methodologies adopted for estimation of HIV prevalence are Sentinel Surveillance and Population Based Survey. Both the methods either under-estimate or over-estimate the HIV prevalence in situations where HIV epidemic is still concentrated in high risk groups. Other set of data that routinely measure sero-prevalence under HIV Prevention and Control Program are among the clients attending VCTC, PMTCT, Blood Banks, STIs clinics and TB centres. Taking current estimates (2006) of HIV prevalence from different sources, an attempt has been made to validate sero-positivity of clients attending various services for HIV estimates. Analyses revealed that sero-positivity among clients of VCTC/PMTCT are the best approximate indicator and of blood donors are the least valid indicator. Out of six states identified as high risk by sentinel surveillance, five states were also rated high prevalence with PMTCT data except Tamil Nadu where there is evidence that prevalence has significantly declined.