Introduction
A decade ago, India was one of the worst affected nations of the HIV pandemic with over 5 million people infected with the HIV. Over the years, this situation has reciprocated, and there are currently a little over 2 million infected persons in the nation. The tremendous change in the number of infected people has shocked many people, and research work must be conducted to shed some light on the factors leading to this trend. The research should particularly focus on the female sex workers in the nation because they have a higher prevalence of contracting the virus.
Research aims
The proposed research aims to highlight the particular factors that led to a decrease in the number of people infected with HIV in India. The research looks to highlight the factors surrounding the decrease in infection rates among female sex workers in the nation. These factors will enable healthcare professionals in other affected parts of the world to use a similar approach in dealing with their high rates of HIV infections.
It is apparent that the Indian government had little to do with the reduction of the HIV infection rates because of its limited resources; hence, it is important to dig into the issue to create a better understanding of how the Indian people actualized the reduction of infections. The objectives of the research are as follows:
- What is the current infection rate?
- Which part of the population has the highest prevalence rate of HIV infection?
- To investigate some of the community-based preventive measures.
- How has the number of new HIV infections in India decreased from 1986 to date?
Literature review
Researchers conducted a study to highlight some of the factors that the Indian community used to lower the rates of HIV infections among people. According to their findings, male circumcision is one of the factors that have led to a decrease in the number of infected people. The research revealed that the low rates of new HIV infection cases among men in India are a result of circumcision. Conclusive findings on the subject reveal that male circumcision protects men from HIV-1 infections. The risk level of infection lowers by about 95% for circumcised men and this could be the reason for the tremendous decrease in the number of new infections among Indian men (Reymonds et al., 2004).
Research conducted by Reza-Paul et al. (2008) focused on revealing the community-based interventions in India, which have led to a significant decrease in HIV infections among female sex workers. The researchers selected various sample spaces of female sex workers from Mysore City and engaged them in surveys.
The surveys revealed that the community-led interventions were empowering female sex workers by advising the women against having unprotected sex. The participants revealed that they were actively using condoms with their partners at varying rates depending on how long they had known their clients. This preventive measure had a positive change in the number of new HIV infections among the female sex workers (Reza-Paul et al., 2008).
Since the 1980s, the Indian government faced challenges in its health care system because of the increase in the number of people infected with HIV. The lack of ample financial resources to cater to the demand for antiretroviral medication threatened to have a very large number of Indians dying from HIV and AIDS.
The emergence of generic antiretroviral drugs changed the trend of HIV-related deaths in India. The Indian government could afford to supply its people with the highly active antiretroviral therapy, and this led to a decrease in the number of people dying from AIDS. It also decreased the number of infections among the female sex workers because of the incorporation of guidance and counseling by the physicians offering therapy to female sex workers infected with HIV (Kumarasamy et al., 2005).
According to a study conducted on female sex workers in India, the social-behavioral issues facing the Indian community are the main factors that led to an increase in HIV infections among Indian female sex workers. Prostitution in the rural areas and the urban areas was an acceptable behavior among women mainly because of the illiteracy levels in the nation.
The Indian government has invested heavily in education and health care improvements, and the community has responded positively to the changes. These changes have led to the development of comprehensive intervention programs for female sex workers. The main focus of the nation is to reduce the number of new HIV infections, and the campaign for the same has paid off tremendously (Blanchard et al., 2005).
A study conducted in India also revealed that women in India have a higher prevalence rate for contracting HIV because of the many female sex workers in Indian society. The researchers developed a study based on the retrieval of primary information from sex workers in India. Confidential interviews conducted on a sample space made by sex workers in India enabled the researchers to gather the required information in the study.
The researchers were looking to reveal the trends in using condoms among the sex workers, especially with their regular partners. The findings from the research indicated that despite the many efforts of intervention applied to help Indian female sex workers, there is still a big population of sex workers failing to use condoms with their clients.
The researchers cited a lack of knowledge about the prevention of HIV infection as one of the leading issues in India. The findings also revealed that home-based sex workers have a higher risk of contracting HIV because they seldom use condoms with their clients. Their counterparts in the brothels appear to know preventive measures, and they have contributed to the lowering of HIV infection rates in India (Dandona et al., 2005).
Researchers from the WHO conducted a study to highlight the most potent intervention programs for the prevention of HIV infections in female sex workers in Botswana and India. The study highlighted some of the approaches used in the respective nations, including behavioral interventions, antiretroviral therapy, and prevention of mother-child infection.
The findings revealed that the application of programs focusing on female sex workers has a long-term effect on the reduction of infection rates. The researchers recommended a longitudinal study on the same to highlight the effectiveness of this approach (Nagelkerke et al., 2002).
Methodology
The research will use a qualitative approach to create a correlation between HIV infection rates among female sex workers in India and the factors that affect the trend (Patton, 2005). A cross-sectional approach will help in the identification of the current prevalence rate of HIV infections among different members of the Indian society (Barros & Hirakata, 2003).
The prevalence rate of HIV infection in India has witnessed tremendous changes over the past decade, and a cross-sectional approach would help to collect a sample space that would effectively represent the entire population in the nation. Most of the researchers on the issue have recommended that future researchers should use approaches that represent the entire Indian nation; hence, this research will utilize the most viable research method.
The collection of data and information will include both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources of data will include online surveys targeting female sex workers in India and questionnaires. A random sampling of the participants will be held paramount in the research to eliminate researcher bias in selecting participants (Anderson et al., 2009).
The research will also rely on past studies on the topic. Scholarly journals will make up the majority of the secondary sources alongside books, and information from government websites. The analysis process for the primary data will be conducted by comparing and contrasting the findings from the surveys and questionnaires. The secondary sources will provide reference points to compare the findings from the primary sources of information in the research. This comparison will help in increasing the validity of the deductions of the research.
Importance of the research
From the literature reviewed, it is apparent that the Indian society has attained a paradigm shift in its approach to employing intervention measures against HIV infections (Shahmanesh, Patel, Mabey & Cowan, 2008). The changes in the number of infected persons, especially among the sex workers in the nation indicate that the programs developed by the Indian community are quite viable in fighting HIV and AIDS.
While some scholars reveal that the changes are attributed to specific factors, the study is yet to be conducted to link these factors to create a better understanding of the changes that India witnessed from 1986 to date on HIV infections. Understanding the dynamics behind the trend in India could help other nations across the world to fight against the HIV and AIDS pandemic (Godbole & Mehendale, 2005).
India is one of the developing nations in the world, and its conditions are similar to many other developing nations like Botswana. Botswana and other African nations have grappled with the HIV pandemic for the past two decades, and most of the nations have failed to lower the rate of infections among the people in their societies (Chandrasekaran et al., 2008).
The findings from the proposed research will be helpful to international healthcare organizations like the WHO because they will reveal some of the most feasible interventions against HIV infections. The research will also link findings from researchers in the past to shed more light on their findings concerning the factors that have led to a decrease in HIV infection rates in one of the most populous nations in the world.
Through the research, various governments across the world will have a chance to compare the intervention programs that the Indian society has implemented and select the most viable programs for their respective nations. It is also apparent that not all intervention programs are efficient; hence, governments will reveal the intervention measures to avoid in their quest to fight HIV and AIDS.
References
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