According to Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the number of new HIV related cases in the country has fallen by 56 percent during the previous one decade.

Mr. Azad claimed that the HIV infections fell from .7 lakh in 2000 to 1.2 lakh in 2009 in the country. While addressing an international HIV vaccine symposium in the national capital, New Delhi, he said that the new HIV Sentinel Surveillance indicates a further decline in the infection in general population and the high risk groups in India.

"This has been possible due to political support at the highest levels to the various interventions under National AIDS Control Programme, including Parliamentarians and elected leaders at the state and local levels, and cooperation received from NGOs, civil society, etc," he said.

Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar stressed the need for the development of technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease. He pointed out that the estimates show that there will still be more than 22 million new infections by 2015.

He said that the spread of the disease can be further contained with the effective prevention programs are expanded to cover more high risk groups in the country.