HIV-1 Infection and Drug-Abuse in India-An Emerging Challenge

India has a population of over 1 billion and the first cases of HIV-1 infection were reported from there in 1987. Since then HIV-infection has spread there very aggressively and at present it is reported that there may be 5.7 millions individuals infected with HIV. Unlike the western countries where the infected HIV-1 virus belongs to clade B, in India it is clade C. A number of structural and functional differences in these two strains can lead to very different pathogenesis. What we know about pathogenesis due to HIV-1 infection is mostly due to studies carried out in the west where the infecting clade is B. Studies on clade C are very few and to meet this challenge research on HIV-1 C clade infection should be carried out on priority bases. Recently NIH funded projects in India are attempting to initiate research on HIV-1 infection. The epidemiology and belief systems in India are additional challenges to carrying out HIV research. There is an urgent need to initiate multi-disciplinary research.