Chennai: US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill on November 6 said the United States' assistance for fighting HIV/AIDS in India would touch $ 120 million in the next five years.

Delivering a special address on "India, the United States and the fight against HIV/AIDS", the Ambassador said that during the last five years US government had dedicated $ 63 million for AIDS prevention programmes in India.

Stating that it was time to bring more vaccines to clinical trial, he said scientists from India and the US were collaborating through the Indo-US Vaccine action programme and the new Indo-US HIV/AIDS prevention research programme to support joint efforts to produce a vaccine for AIDS.

Blackwill said US Agency for International Development (USAID) was planning to incorporate "HIV prevention into its other endeavours, notably innovations in family planning services project in Uttar Pradesh and assistance to CARE India."

Presently, USAID supports two major bilateral projects, one in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherrry and the other in Maharashtra. Of this, the AIDS Prevention and Control Project (APAC) has recently completed seven years and has been extended for another five years, he added.

Blackwill said USAID funding to non-bilateral activities included creating new prevention efforts in 12 major ports, including Chennai, helping children affected by AIDS, increasing applied research, involving business and workplace and raising awareness of the illness in the general Indian population.

US National Institutes of Health were in scientific collaboration with numerous Indian institutions to improve HIV/AIDS prevention and care, joint research focusing changing hazardous behaviour, mother-to-child transmission and vaccine development.

"US departments of health and human services, labour and defence are also represented in our efforts to help deal with HIV/AIDS in India," he said.

Pointing out that women and girls were among the most vulnerable to HIV infection, he regretted that only about 40 per cent married women in India had ever heard of HIV/AIDS.

He said as in the case of US, "trafficking in girls was an uncomfortable, but real problem and linkages to increased risk of HIV/AIDS infections were serious."

Stating that HIV/AIDS often carries disgrace with it, he said, "we have to de-stigmatise the infection to control it."

"At present, about 0.8 per cent (four million) of Indian adults are infected. If the disease is not checked, India could soon surpass South Africa as the country with the highest number of HIV/AIDS sufferers in the world," he said.

He said a recent analysis of the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) had warned that 25 million Indians could be stricken with HIV/AIDS by 2010, adding this would cause a human tragedy of historic proportions.

PTI