Bringing a glimmer of hope in the campaign against AIDS, India recorded a 95 percent fall in the number of new infections in 2003-04, according to the ministry of health and family welfare.

With 28,000 new people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in 2003-04 compared to 520,000 a year before, the number of HIV positive patients was estimated to be 5.13 million at the end of 2003-04.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, however, said Wednesday that the government would not show any complacency in the fight against AIDS, which has killed 1,114 people in 2004 in India compared to 1,514 a year ago.

There were 103,000 known cases of full-blown AIDS in 2004.

"As far as the government is concerned the number, 28,000 or 280,000, is not of importance. We will go all out against HIV/AIDS irrespective of the numbers," Ramadoss told reporters here.

He said the focus would be on Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, where HIV prevalence was high.

"The success till now is the result of a concerted effort to create awareness about the disease and the stringent monitoring and surveillance at the grassroots," Ramdoss said.

The surveillance and estimation of cases was being done as per the norms of the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS by two Delhi-based independent organizations - Institute of Research in Medical Statistics and the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare.

A ministry official said the surveillance was done at 670 sites across states and geographical and socio-economic regions.

Rubbishing reports that India had overtaken South Africa, which has the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases (5.3 million) in the world, the official said that figures showed how India's standing had improved.

"Such reports only provide shock value. While 21-23 percent of South Africa's population is infected, in India it's just 0.91 percent," claimed S.Y. Quereshi, director general, National AIDS Control Organisation.

UNAIDS country co-ordinator for India Denis Broun, cautioned against complacency.

"The government's hard work has surely paid off. But there could be no rest till the last traces of the disease are removed. No country can be thought to be out of danger," Broun said.