Accompanying South Africa and Nigeria, India stands at the third spot on the podium of list of maximum AIDS patients standing at 2.5 million.

The World Bank has recently said that the country may have to spend more out of its increasing healthcare budget to cure the AIDS patients. It is estimated that currently the Capital spends almost 5% of its total healthcare budget of $5.4 billion on treating AIDS patients. But with Mumbai, the financial capital of India and the northeast regions catching up fast World Bank has cautioned that the spending may go up to $1.8 billion or 7% of the total healthcare budget.

The experts are of a view that 15% of the more than 200,000 injectible drug users (IDUs) are already HIV positive as against a global average of 10%. It is estimated that in some of the areas this percentage even cross the 50% level mark creating a situation of havoc in the healthcare ministry.

The World Bank further said that 36% of the people living in the country with HIV virus normally face an income loss which makes their living even worse coupled with the higher expenditures on the treatment.