Shocking Exaggeration of AIDS Numbers!

Last year, on the World AIDS Day (must be a sick institution that requests the world to celebrate a day for illnesses), I had blogged here (http://tamil-nadu.blogspot.com/2006/12/world-aids-day-tamilnadu-and-aids.html) on the way the entire debate is being kidnapped. I had long suspected that the alarm of AIDS in this country is exaggerated. With the numbers not being clear to all those who were involved, no clarity in the methods of measurement and certainly no idea among the grassroot level workers (from the NGO world) who have become victims of the international aid agencies' money for AIDS awareness.

Now it turns out that my suspicion is correct in this issue. The news item today provides some insights (http://justsamachar.com/popular/meet-the-man-behind-indias-true-aids-figures) - "New Delhi, July 12: It became official last week that India’s AIDS scare was exaggerated far above the actual infection number of 2.47 million."

But, this was not the case six months ago, the director of the National AIDS control organization concurred with the UN organization despite her own organization’s estimates being otherwise (http://specials.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/01sld1.htm)
"India's National AIDS Control Organisation estimates that 124,995 Indians have AIDS. But UNAIDS puts the figure much higher -- it says 5,700,000 Indians have AIDS. Speaking at an Asia Society discussion on AIDS in India in March, Sujata Rao, director general, National AIDS Control Organisation, appeared to concur with the UNAIDS estimate. "We lost 500,000 people to AIDS last year," she said. "There are 5.2 million HIV infected people in India."

I had written at that time that AIDS must be strange case where the total number of victimized is dictated from the top, coming from an UN agency, that is from the very top. It is as though our own common sense and understanding of the issue doesn’t matter. It is not as though the exaggeration is by a small number, this is a hundred percent exaggeration!

We need to understand who benefits from such exaggeration.
Why are the International agencies hell bent on telling us we are more ill than we actually are.
Is there a nexus between those who promote these numbers and those who benefit from the treatment to this illness? (refer to my blog on this earlier this year)
Why are government policies being formulated based on such exaggerations?
How can one rely upon any government data for any illnesses and accept its prescription, particularly as some of these are being made mandatory in recent times (like the compulsory AIDS screening for all pregnant women)?

We have a history of such blind acceptance of our own illnesses. Many years back, the earlier President of USA, Clinton made the exaggerated claim that a million children were going blind in India every year due to Vitamin A deficiency. He was of course doing the sales man job for the supposedly Vitamin-A enriched, genetically modified rice. No government agency or individual thought of placing the record straight leave alone challenging the American President. We as a nation are suckers for anyone telling us we are ill, we are weak, we are lowly worms. What is it that makes us accept such these numbers without challenging them? And why are our government agencies in a hurry to concur with international agencies at the cost of their own common sense and better understanding?