title: Knowing your HIV/AIDS epidemic and tailoring an effective response: how did India do it?
abstract: Tremendous global efforts have been made to collect data on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet, significant challenges remain for generating and analysing evidence to allocate resources efficiently and implement an effective AIDS response. India offers important lessons and a model for intelligent and integrated use of data on HIV/AIDS for an evidence-based response. Over the past 15 years, the number of data sources has expanded and the geographical unit of data generation, analysis and use for planning has shifted from the national to the state, district and now subdistrict level. The authors describe and critically analyse the evolution of data sets in India and how they have been utilised to better understand the epidemic, advance policy, and plan and implement an increasingly effective, well-targeted and decentralised national response to HIV and AIDS. The authors argue that India is an example of how 'know your epidemic, know your response' message can effectively be implemented at scale and presents important lessons to help other countries design their evidence generation systems.
authors.affiliation: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Capital Court Building, 3rd Floor, Left Wing, Olof Palme, Munirka, New Delhi 110067, India. Sema.Sgaier@gatesfoundation.org
authors.forename: Sema K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sgaier
authors.forename: Mariam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Claeson
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gilks
authors.forename: Banadakoppa M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Ghys
authors.forename: Alkesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wadhwani
authors.forename: Aparajita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramakrishnan
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tangri
authors.forename: Chandramouli
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: K
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D058872:Epidemics / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000706:statistics & numerical data