Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission

Evidence based resource allocation and decentralized planning of an effective HIV/AIDS response requires reliable information on levels and trends of HIV at national and sub-national geographic levels. HIV sentinel surveillance data from antenatal clinics (HSS-ANC) has been an important data source to assess the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India, but has a number of limitations. We assess the value of Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) programme data to appraise the HIV epidemic in India. HIV data from PPTCT sites were compared to HSS-ANC and general population level surveys at various geographic levels in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Chi-square tests were used to ascertain statistical significance. PPTCT HIV prevalence was significantly lower than HSS-ANC HIV prevalence (0.92% vs. 1.22% in Andhra Pradesh, 0.65% vs. 0.89% in Karnataka, 0.52% vs. 0.60% in Maharashtra, p