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The World Health Organization defines several patterns of AIDS transmission. The United States and Europe have pattern I, in which transmission of the AIDS virus is largely associated with homosexuality and intravenous drug use. Pattern II occurs in Africa, where HIV transmission is largely the result of heterosexual contact and the use of contaminated blood products. India is a pattern III area, which is an area of low prevalence into which the human immunodeficiency virus is being brought from the outside. There are fears, however, that India will evolve into a pattern II area as the epidemic takes hold in that region. Constant surveillance of the prevalence of HIV infection is taking place in India, but the prevalence of HIV antibodies is still low. In a study of 701 prostitutes in Delhi, only one was found to be HIV positive. Furthermore, an evaluation of 4,572 patients from a sexually transmitted disease clinic, a high-risk group in many western countries, failed to reveal a single individual infected with the AIDS virus. These results are in marked contrast to the higher rates of infection which have been reported by other studies for coastal cities, such as Bombay. There is, of course, concern that these coastal cities will slowly contaminate the surrounding areas and that, within a few years, the inland areas of India will become infected with the AIDS virus as well. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The prevalence of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is increasing in India. The group of people with the greatest infection rate is prostitutes, who spread the virus to others through heterosexual relationships. Blood from both paid and unpaid donors in Delhi, India was screened for contamination with HIV. The screening was done using a test for the presence of antibodies against HIV. None of 8,000 unpaid donors were infected with HIV, but four out of 1,700 (0.23 percent) of the paid donors were infected. The presence of HIV in the blood of the four antibody-positive individuals was confirmed by Western blot analysis, in which proteins of the virus were detected. This study indicates that HIV infection is present in the group of individuals who are paid for donating blood in India. It is thought that the paid donors probably acquired their infection from prostitutes. Blood that is donated must be screened for the presence of HIV before use. The government of India has already begun screening every unit of donated blood in the major cities in India. Also, the use of paid donors must be discouraged, so that HIV is not transmitted to the general population in India. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)