HIV/AIDS in India is an epidemic. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) estimated that 3.14 million people lived with HIV/AIDS in India in 2023. Despite being home to the world's third-largest population of persons with HIV/AIDS, the AIDS prevalence rate in India is lower than that of many other countries. In 2016, India's AIDS prevalence rate stood at approximately 0.30%—the 80th highest in the world. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is via a combination of antiretroviral drugs and education programs to help people avoid infection.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, also known by its abbreviation MoHFW, is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.
David M. Serwadda is a Ugandan physician, medical researcher, academic, public health specialist and medical administrator. Currently he is a Professor of Public Health at Makerere University School of Public Health, one of the schools of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, a semi-autonomous constituent college of Makerere University, the oldest university in Uganda. Serwadda is also a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation's Academic Alliance.
Avahan was an initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce the spread of HIV in India. It began in 2003 and by 2013, the control of the programme transitioned to the Government of India in phases. As of 2009 the Gates Foundation had pledged US$338 million to the programme, whose aim was to reduce HIV transmission and the prevalence of STIs in vulnerable high-risk populations, notably female sex workers, MSM, and injecting drug users (IDU), through prevention education and services such as condom promotion, STI management, behaviour change communication, community mobilisation, and advocacy. Avahan worked in six high-prevalence states. All the states in India who had a HIV prevalence of more than 1 per cent in the year 2002, were considered as HIV high-prevalent states. All the states had a lead partner and other NGOs and CBOs at the district-level who implemented the prevention programme. India HIV/AIDS Alliance was the state lead partner in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in Karnataka, Path Finder in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative and Voluntary Health Services (VHS) in Tamil Nadu. The other two states are Nagaland and Manipur in the North-East of India had Emmanuel Hospital Association and Australian International Health Institute as lead partners. Apart from the State Lead Partners, Avahan had cross-cutting partners for advocacy in Centre for Advocacy and Research, for Police Advocacy in Constella Futures, care and support in Care International. After Avahan, BMGF shifted its focus on TB, maternal and child health and other areas like polio.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) was founded over 30 years ago by Phyllis Tilson Piotrow as a part the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's department of Health, Behavior, and Society and is located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, popularly known as the Tambaram TB Sanatorium, is a major state-owned hospital situated in Chennai, India. The hospital is funded and managed by the state government of Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1928.
The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), established within Makerere University, is a Ugandan not-for-profit organization which aims to strengthen health systems in Africa, with a strong emphasis on infectious diseases; through research and capacity development. In pursuit of its mission both in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa, IDI provides care to People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and other infectious diseases, builds capacity among healthcare workers through training and ongoing support, maintains a focus on prevention, and carries out relevant research.
The Society for Family Health (SFH) is a pan-African non governmental organisation (NGO), founded in 1983 and incorporated in 1985.
Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, MMed, MS(Epi), FFPHM, FFPath (Virol), DipData, PhD, DSc(hc), FRS is a South African public health physician, epidemiologist and virologist who has played a leading role in the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemic. His scientific contributions have impacted the landscape of HIV prevention and treatment, saving thousands of lives.
Voluntary Health Services, popularly known as the VHS Hospital, is a multispecialty tertiary care referral hospital in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, reportedly serving the economically weaker sections of the society. It was founded in 1958 by Krishnaswami Srinivas Sanjivi, an Indian physician, social worker and a winner of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards and is run by a charitable non governmental organization of the same name. The hospital is situated along Rajiv Gandhi Salai at Taramani, in Chennai.
Suniti Solomon was an Indian physician and microbiologist who pioneered AIDS research and prevention in India after having diagnosed the first Indian AIDS cases among the Chennai sex workers in 1986 along with her student Sellappan Nirmala. She founded the YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education in Chennai. The Indian government conferred the National Women Bio-scientist Award on her. On 25 January 2017, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri for medicine for her contributions towards diagnosis and treatment of HIV.
David DuPuy Celentano is a noted epidemiologist and professor who has contributed significantly to the promotion of research on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). He is the Charles Armstrong chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He holds joint appointments with the school’s departments of Health Policy and Management, Health Behavior and Society, and International Health, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases.
Soumya Swaminathan is an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. From 2019 to 2022, she served as the chief scientist at the World Health Organization under the leadership of Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Previously, from October 2017 to March 2019, she was the deputy director general of programmes (DDP) at the World Health Organization.
Thomas J. Coates is the Director of the multi-campus University of California Global Health Institute, a UC-wide initiative established to improve health and reduce the burden of disease throughout the world. He is Professor Emeritus at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Founding Director of the UCLA Center for World Health, a joint initiative of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and UCLA Health, He has conducted extensive research in the realm of HIV and is the Michael and Sue Steinberg Endowed Professor of Global AIDS Research within the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCLA and Distinguished Professor of Medicine. Health-related behavior is of particular interest to Coates. Throughout his career as a health expert, his theory-based research has been focused on interventions aimed at reducing risks and threats to health
Sellappan Nirmala is an Indian doctor who discovered the first case of HIV in India in 1986. In 1985, aged 32, she was working as a microbiology student in Chennai (Madras) and for her dissertation, began collecting blood samples and having them tested for HIV; among them were the first samples collected in India to test positive.
Raman Gangakhedkar is an Indian public health expert and epidemiologist. He served as Head Scientist of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research before retiring on 30 June 2020. He is a recipient of the 2020 Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian award in India.
Eugene Nzila Nzilambi, also referred to as N. Nzila, Nzila Nzilambi, or Eugene Nzila, is a Zairean scientist and physician at the Department of Public Health in Kinshasa, now known as the Ministry of Public Health. He played at important role in establishing Project SIDA in Zaire, along with several international scientists. While conducting research, he opened a walk-in clinic and has since produced a lot of research on the HIV virus.
Karithi Ruth Wanjiru Nduati is a Kenyan Pediatrician and Epidemiologist who also teaches at the University of Nairobi College of Health Sciences. She is also currently leading an interdisciplinary program through the University of Nairobi School of Medicine to educate physician-researchers to best implement HIV treatment and prevention methods backed by research. The program was funded by the Fogarty Training Grant which is a part of the PEPFAR funds the country of Kenya received.
Sunil Suhas Solomon is an Indian academic and associate professor of Medicine, in the Division of Infectious Diseases, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr Sunil is also the chairman of YRGCARE. His work revolves around epidemiology, clinical management and access to HIV and HCV services for at risk populations.
P Kausalya, aka Periasamy Kousalya is an Indian HIV activist. She came to notice as the first woman to talk to the media about being one of India's HIV-positive people. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2015 by the Indian government. She was one of four people who started the Positive Women Network to champion the rights of women who were HIV+.
