New Delhi: Himanshu Sharma, 35, a computer engineer from Mumbai, walked into Akash Hospital in Delhi expecting nothing more than a routine check-up. A recent visit to a red-light area had left him uneasy — a fear he tried to shrug off. But that fear turned real when Dr. Sharad Malhotra informed him that he was HIV-positive.
The news shattered him. “It felt like everything collapsed in a moment,” he recalled. But doctors reassured him that HIV is no longer a death sentence. Determined not to let the virus dictate his future, Himanshu began treatment and slowly rebuilt his life.
He later married a woman who was also HIV-positive, and today the couple is raising a healthy, HIV-negative son — living proof of how far medical science has come in India.
Behind his story lies a larger and more troubling reality. India continues to carry one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS burdens, with an estimated 2.5 million people living with the virus in 2023. Despite steady progress, about 60,000 new infections and 70,000 AIDS-related deaths still occur every year. Stigma, late diagnosis, unequal access to antiretroviral therapy, and co-infections like tuberculosis continue to fuel the crisis — especially in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, where HIV prevalence is higher than the national average of 0.22 percent among adults.
A senior doctor at ICMR said, “On World AIDS Day 2025, ICMR’s research continues to guide HIV treatment and prevention strategies. India has achieved a 44 percent drop in new HIV infections since 2010 and an 81 percent fall in AIDS-related deaths, moving closer to an AIDS-free future.”
A recent study from Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital revealed an alarming situation. Over the past two years, screening at the blood bank detected a significant number of HIV-positive blood donors. Shockingly, many of them never returned for treatment or follow-up — largely due to fear, denial, and social stigma. Doctors point out that even when HIV is detected during routine blood donation, people often avoid visiting antiretroviral therapy centres to keep their identity hidden. The study highlights the urgent need for proper screening and counselling so that individuals identified during donation do not fall through the cracks.
GTB Hospital receives thousands of blood donors every year, and each sample is tested using fourth-generation ELISA kits, which offer rapid and highly sensitive results. These tests help identify infections like HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C early. But early detection is pointless if patients are too afraid to seek treatment.
Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said, “AIDS deaths in India have come down by 69 percent. We are fighting HIV/AIDS on all fronts and leading the world. India is not only protecting its own citizens but also providing affordable, high-quality medicines that are helping curb AIDS across the globe.”
He further added, “We are ready to achieve our target by 2030, but more people must be educated about HIV/AIDS.”
The Government of India has set an ambitious target: to eliminate the fear and fatality associated with HIV/AIDS by 2030. The progress so far is significant. According to NACO, AIDS-related deaths have dropped by 81 percent between 2010 and 2024 — from 1.73 lakh to 32,300. Globally, 6.3 lakh people died from HIV/AIDS last year, with India accounting for just five percent of those deaths. New infections in India have decreased by 48.7 percent since 2010, while mother-to-child transmission has fallen by 74.6 percent.
The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), launched in 1992 and now in Phase V with an outlay of ₹15,471.94 crore, aims to further reduce new infections and AIDS-related deaths by 80 percent by 2025–26. It also aims for the complete elimination of stigma and the dual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
NACO senior official Dr. Bharti Sahai says that Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Punjab are emerging as new hot-spots, driven primarily by injecting drug use. Meanwhile, states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur, and Nagaland continue to carry some of the highest HIV burdens in the country.
She further explains that people who inject drugs face HIV prevalence rates up to 40 times the national average in some states. Female sex workers remain another high-risk group — with Maharashtra showing 7 percent prevalence, Karnataka 6 percent, and Tamil Nadu 1 percent. Men who have sex with men and transgender persons remain consistently vulnerable across high-burden states.
India’s fight against HIV/AIDS is far from over. It is a fight against stigma as much as it is a fight against the virus. But stories like Himanshu’s — and the relentless work of doctors, counsellors, and public-health workers — show that with awareness, treatment, and dignity, life with HIV can be not just manageable, but hopeful.
(Cover Image Credit: Canva)
