New Delhi: Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha on November 10 said that a US agency report has made exaggerated projections on AIDS with reference to India and there might be some vested interests behind it.

"We have in India around 4 million people living with HIV. It is however completely inaccurate to claim that India will have over 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS by 2010," Sinha said referring to the report.

There was no need to panic as there was no merit in such "propaganda", Sinha said at a health assembly meeting organised by National Medicos Organisation in New Delhi, questioning the basis of such figures.

He hinted that some multinational companies, which are looking for gains in terms of the prospects of future market for AIDS drugs, might be behind this propaganda.

However, this is a matter of concern for the country that from one case reported in 1986, the number had gone up to about 4 million, he said adding government was taking all steps to prevent its spread.

Sinha said country had made a lot of progress in all the fields but was still facing the burden of many diseases like TB, malaria, polio and leprosy.

Stating that country's health policies were aimed at the poor, Sinha said government needed help of all sections to reach the goal of health for all.

He said both the medical and political professions have lost in terms of respect, which was a phenomenon world over. People's faith in doctors had diminished over the years, he said.

PTI