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Sex Transm Infect 88:240-249 doi:10.1136/sextrans-2011-050382
  • Programme science

Knowing your HIV/AIDS epidemic and tailoring an effective response: how did India do it?

Open Access
  1. Chandramouli K6
  1. 1Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, New Delhi, India
  2. 2Human Development, South Asia Region, The World Bank, New Delhi, India
  3. 3UNAIDS, New Delhi, India
  4. 4Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bangalore, India
  5. 5UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland
  6. 6Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, New Delhi, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sema K Sgaier, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Capital Court Building, 3rd Floor, Left Wing, Olof Palme, Munirka, New Delhi 110067, India; Sema.Sgaier{at}gatesfoundation.org

  1. Contributors SKS conceptualised the manuscript, conducted the literature search, compiled and analysed the data, and wrote the manuscript. AT assisted with the data analysis. MC, CG, AW, AR, BMR, PDG and KC provided critical content and editorial inputs and helped to draft and review the manuscript.

  • Accepted 14 February 2012
  • Published Online First 17 April 2012

Abstract

Tremendous global efforts have been made to collect data on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet, significant challenges remain for generating and analysing evidence to allocate resources efficiently and implement an effective AIDS response. India offers important lessons and a model for intelligent and integrated use of data on HIV/AIDS for an evidence-based response. Over the past 15 years, the number of data sources has expanded and the geographical unit of data generation, analysis and use for planning has shifted from the national to the state, district and now subdistrict level. The authors describe and critically analyse the evolution of data sets in India and how they have been utilised to better understand the epidemic, advance policy, and plan and implement an increasingly effective, well-targeted and decentralised national response to HIV and AIDS. The authors argue that India is an example of how ‘know your epidemic, know your response’ message can effectively be implemented at scale and presents important lessons to help other countries design their evidence generation systems.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests The World Bank is a pooling partner with the India Third National AIDS Control Program. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Government of India funded some of the data sets described in this article. UNAIDS assists NACO with their data analysis and HIV estimation process.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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