there is no galloping hiv epidemic in India, the Union ministry of health and family welfare (mohfw) asserted recently . A sharp decrease in the number of new cases of hiv infection has been observed in 2004: 28,000 as against 2003's 520,000. But the ministry's claims have been met with widespread scepticism and the allegation of it being in a "denial mode'.

The government maintains that the decrease in new infections will not make it complacent. "The results do not have any policy implications. It has programme implications regarding areas that need enhancement, such as scaling up services like treatment and control,' says Mohammed Shaukat, joint director, National aids Control Organisation (naco), which comes under mohfw. But organisations working with hiv/aids patients disagree with the latest projections. "...the number cannot go down so much