WHO says Indian AIDS funds misused
AIDS weekly 1994: 7-8
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 1069-1456 PMID: 12288414 Document Number: 287388
Funds provided to India to promote AIDS awareness have been misused, in some instances by interstate truck drivers, targeted by studies as a potential source of spreading HIV, who use free condoms to plug leaking radiators on their trucks, a World Health Organization (WHO) report said. There has been an increasing demand for free condoms distributed by the government, but they weren't used to promote safe sex. Prostitution in Bombay has flourished into a major service industry. A study in 1993 by WHO revealed 35% of the city's prostitutes tested HIV-positive. Despite the fact that AIDS had spread throughout India, local and state governments were lagging behind in using funds to promote protection against HIV. In 1992, the World Bank loaned $84 million to India to finance its anti-AIDS program, but where a state government was actually using the money, it was either under-used or misused. According to the National AIDS Control Organization, India has 1.62 million HIV-positive cases, up by 60% since 1993. Most hospitals in India still have no blood screening facilities and many refuse to treat HIV-positive patients. Nearly 50 to 60% of blood in the country is not yet screened for HIV, the head of a non-governmental health organization said. Officials, however, balk at the thought of educating a country with the second largest population in the world, rampant illiteracy, and sexual taboos. India's socioeconomic conditions act as a major barrier to controlling AIDS and enforcing laws in regard to HIV-positive patients.