There are many individuals and institutions engaged in different aspects of AIDS research and treatment in India. Not surprisingly, there is not always a meeting of minds. To get to the bottom of AIDS research in India and to learn how the region as a whole could benefit from the work done to date in India, Shanta Basnet Dixit interviewed some AIDS and STD specialists in Bombay and Delhi.
Dr. A.S. Paintal is the Director of the prestigious Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) in New Delhi, an apex body for medical and public health research in India. ICMR has pioneered procedures for screening and surveillance of high risk populations, and blood and blood products. However, ICMR has also been accused of coercively screening "captive populations" for the HIV virus and for not letting those screened know the results.
Dr. A. S. Paintal: I would have prevented the AIDS epidemic in India if they had let me stop foreigners entering this country in 1987. (12 of the 44 AIDS cases as of March 1990, and a higher proportion in 1987 were expatriates.)
Himal: What about the Indians that bring the virus from abroad?