In the northeastern state of Manipur, some AIDS patients have been chained or sent to prison. Many of India's citizens see people with AIDS as beyond help, contagious, and destined to die isolated from family and friends. Christian churches have stepped forward into these desperate situations. Now many churches have opened their premises for AIDS-related work. CANA was established two years ago to mobilize the church in India to respond to the growing AIDS epidemic.
Prevention is at the top of churches' priority list.
Emphasis will have to be on prevention as 90 percent of the affected patients aren't even aware that they have been infected. Alexander estimates the epidemic will have spread significantly in all the Indian states by 2005. Still, many Indians oppose sex education in schools and colleges. Alex Vadakumthala, executive secretary of the commission for the health care apostolate of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, describes what happens when people try to help. Some see the epidemic as a challenge to change behavior.