HIV/AIDS is as much a threat to businesses as it is to individual life, family and society. It is high time the Indian corporate world became aware of this and joined forces to fight this epidemic.

For a country that was expected to emerge as the HIV/AIDS capi- tal of the world sooner or later, the announcement made by the Union Health Minister on July 6, 2007 that the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in India is not as alarming as it was projected to be must come as a heartening news. The revised figure of people infected with HIV/AIDS, compiled by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and supported by the UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO), indicate that the national adult HIV prevalence is approximately 0.36%, which corresponds to an estimated 2.1 million people infected with HIV. This is down from the earlier estimate of 0.9% or roughly 5.2 million people living with HIV.

The Government of India established a National HIV/AIDS Program in 1986, when the first HIV case was detected in the country, and a high-powered National AIDS Committee was constituted in the same year. The National AIDS Control program was launched in 1987 with the objective of checking the spread of HIV infection in the country and coordinating the efforts of the Central, State and Union Territory governments in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The NACO and the State AIDS Control Societies (SACS), set up subsequently, have been implementing the program throughout the country since 1992.

HIV/AIDS: Corporate Immune Deficiency Syndrome?, businesses, individual life, family and society, Indian corporate world, epidemic, world sooner or later, projected, heartening news, revised figure of people, infected with HIV/AIDS, National AIDS Control Organization, the UNAIDS, World Health Organization, national adult HIV prevalence, business supply chains