In 2014, global targets were set to eliminate vertical
transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by 2020 but until now, only few
countries have been able to do so. Vertical transmission means passage of a disease-causing agent (pathogen) from mother to baby during the period immediately before and after birth. In India, there has been a progress but we still
have a long way to go to eliminate the disease. According to the data available,
testing among pregnant women rose from 18% to 78% during 2015-2019 in 14
states, while early infant diagnosis within two months of birth upped from 51%
to 82% in the remaining 22 states during 2017-2019.

In 2002, India started a programme for preventing
vertical transmission and national data reveal that in 2018-2019, 77% of the 30
million pregnant women got an HIV test and 61% of the estimated HIV-positive
pregnant women were linked to care. During the same period, 86% of the babies
exposed to HIV were initiated on antiretroviral prophylaxis but only 23% were
tested for HIV before eight weeks of age. Also, more worrying was that only 20%
of the HIV-positive mothers were estimated to breastfeed exclusively in the
first six months after giving birth.

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According to the latest report (2019) of the
Centre, India had around 23.49 lakh people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in
2019. The HIV epidemic has an overall decreasing trend in country with
estimated annual new HIV infections declining by 37% between 2010 and 2019.

The reports suggest that AIDS in India is mainly caused by engagement
in high risk behaviours, including unprotected heterosexual behaviour, unprotected
homosexual behaviour, and unsafe injecting drug use behaviour.

There are no dedicated hospitals for the treatment of
HIV/AIDS patients. However, under the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) of
the Centre, as on July 2020, there are 570 Anti-retroviral treatment (ART)
Centers and 1,264 Link ART Centers.

The first case of HIV/AIDS case in India was reported in 1986 and since then India has made significant progress in containing
the disease.