Abstract
Abstract There are over 5 million people in South Asia living with HIV/AIDS. Almost 90% of those infected live in India. Other countries in the region such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have a low HIV prevalence in the general population, but have high rates among subpopulations that engage in high-risk behavior. Factors that influence spread of infection include poverty, low literacy, social factors that result in the inability of women to negotiate safe sex, injecting drug use, and unsafe transfusion and injection practices. The presence of a large population with HIV/AIDS in a region where tuberculosis (TB) is endemic poses a serious public health challenge. In India, TB is the most common serious infection occurring among HIV-positive persons. The provision of drugs for treatment of TB and other opportunistic infections is limited. The lack of access to antiretroviral drugs is a problem in the region, and the cost of these drugs raises fears of suboptimal use resulting in resistant strains of the virus.
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