India- HIV/AIDS Care andTreatment Acess Campaign

[Guest guest]

HIV/AIDS CARE AND TREATMENT ACCESS CAMPAIGN

AIDS DESK conducted a one-day state level consultation

programme for People Living with HIV/AIDs (PLWHAs).

24 members represented networks from six districts of

Tamilnadu. We met in Chennai on 10th September 2002,

and formed a national campaign “ HIV/AIDS CARE AND

TREATMENT ACCESS CAMPAIGN “. This is the major

objective of this programme.

Without treatment, 6 million people living with

HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in our country today will die

predictable and avoidable deaths over the next decade.

This institutes a crime against humanity.

Governments, multilateral institutions, the private

sector, and civil society must intervene without delay

to prevent this. We must ensure access to

antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as part of a

comprehensive continuum of care for all people living

with HIV/AIDS in India.

The recognition of the human rights to life, dignity,

equality, freedom and equal access to public goods

including health-care are the fundamental principles

of the Declaration of Human Rights. Similarly the

rights of the people with HIV/AIDS must be protected

and they should be allowed equal medical, social and

economic access. The particular needs of women,

children and young adults (high-risk groups) should be

taken in consideration in treatment and preventive

strategies for HIV/AIDS.

Those who participated in the one-day Consultation

Programme, submitting the following demands to the

Government, donor agencies, multilateral institutions,

pharmaceutical companies and private sectors.

Demands to the Government of India and State

Government of Tamilnadu :

· Treatment Policy: Create and implement clear,

legally binding HIV/AIDS policies and plans including

Anti Retro Viral (ARV) treatment as part of a

comprehensive continuum of care. Ensure inclusion of

ARVs on national essential drug lists at Primary care

Level.

· Prevention: Expand distribution of male and female

condoms, and encourage the research for microbicides

and vaccines in the country.

· Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT): Ensure

accessibility to VCT centres in rural and urban areas

having 5 lakhs population. Through these centers HIV

prevention and control activities can be intensified

at grass root levels.

In VCT centers HIV infected persons can be trained in

Counseling and appointed as counselors in the Centers,

as these people know the pain and suffering of the

disease, and will be more effective than non-infected

counselors.

· Prevention of Mother-To-Child-Transmission (MTCT) or

Parent-To-Child-transmission (PTCT): At present this

system was started in all district Hospitals, and it

should be monitored for its effective functioning.

Because there is still very high rejection and

isolation of infected people among the doctors and

hospital assistants, this situation has to be changed.

Health Care Workers can be encouraged to do this job.

· Continuous access to ARV drugs should be ensured

with the above-mentioned centers, and they must

provide women with all information necessary to make

informed choices about breast-feeding options.

· Access to post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for sexual

assault survivors and occupational exposures

· Treatment of opportunistic infections (OIs): Treat

all OIS intensively including tuberculosis (TB),

thrush, and meningitis. Expand access to key drugs

such as fluconazole, acyclovir, and clotrimoxazole and

monitor resistance and side effects especially with

Clotrimazole.

· Treatment of TB: Revise diagnostic protocols;

improve diagnosis and emphasis on routine tests for

PLWHAs. Allocate more resources to new research,

easier to use drugs; and utilise existing TB clinics

to scale-up ARV programmes. It should be available in

all Primary Health Centers to District Hospitals.

Continuing Medical Education programs could be

organized frequently to update all health care workers

about the advancement of the diseases.

· Treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs):

Ensure access to appropriate, and scientific

approaches to Sexually transmitted diseases and

following syndromic case management. The Government

should also conduct training on STI and reproductive

Health training at the village level in association

with PHCs and Community Based Organizations (CBOs).

· Nutritional support: Ensure adequate nutritional

information, education, and support to PLWHAS and

their families.

· Palliative care: Intensive Care Units (ICU) should

be started in all District Headquarters Hospitals and

they could be linked with home-based care.

· Sufficient money should be allotted in the Annual

national budget to eradicate HIV/AIDS, T.B and

malaria, under health activities, because these

diseases only impose more financial requirements and

medical expenses on poor people.

Women and children:

Women are the most vulnerable groups affected and

infected by the disease. Due to various reasons, male

partners usually expire before they do and these women

are left as widows, destitute and orphaned in society.

Their husband’s families refuse them their rights to

their share of the property, and their own parents

deny the situation and refuse to accept these women

into their homes. They are forced to make a new start

separately. Most of them are not literate and don’t

have any vocational skills. They find it very

difficult to cope with the situation. They need more

financial, social and moral support from the

Government and others.

We state the following requirements to the Government

and other agencies for the welfare of women and

children who are affected and infected with HIV/AIDS.

· When the husband expires, the rights of the women to

access for property share could be protected. The

free legal cells in the District should be motivated

to work on legal rights on behalf of the PLWHAs.

· When the Primary bread winner dies, a the

compensation of Rs.10,000 should be given to the

family without any conditions under the National

Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS)

· Widow pension has to be given to these widows also,

without any terms and conditions. It should be

increased to Rs.500 per month. The money can be

transferred through the Panchayats / District

Directorate of Social Welfare.

· District Rural Development Agency and NABARD /

nationalized bank should come forward to give loans to

these young widows/ destitute women to start small

business enterprises.

· State Women welfare Commission / and women

Development Corporation should consider these affected

and infected women groups also into consideration for

their welfare programs and technical supports through

Self Help Groups.

· Infected and affected widows or destitutes can be

employed in the Government offices as part time / full

time jobs for unskilled works.

· When the parents are not able to work and earn

money, such families have to be supported with

financial support of Rs.500/- per month. This is

towards the children’s studies and survival needs of

the family.

· Care homes can be established for orphans / widows /

destitutes / single women who do not have any shelter,

food and care.

· Orphan children have to be supported under

Government Children adoption scheme. (Thottil

Kulanthai Scheme).

We make the following demands to the pharmaceutical

companies.

· Unconditionally reduce the prices of drugs,

diagnostics, and monitoring tools.

· Government has to make some arrangements to sell the

ARV drugs at a subsidized rates.

· Government has to declare tax exemption to ARV drugs

under the Life saving drugs list.

And we commit ourselves to:

· Assure you that we will contribute to the social

good through social investments to control and reduce

the incidence of HIV/AIDS in the community. We will

behave as responsible persons in the community, not to

spread further infection to anybody through us.

· Mobilise our communities, our political leaders, and

all sectors of society throughout the country to

ensure access to ARV treatment for all who need it,

starting with the immediate implementation of the WHO

goal to ensure ARV treatment for at least three

million people in the developing world by 2005.

· Create and implement clear, legally binding HIV/AIDS

policies and plans including Anti Retro Viral (ARV)

treatment as part of a comprehensive continuum of

care. Ensure inclusion of ARVs on national essential

drug lists at Primary care Level.

We put the following demands to Donor agencies and

multinational companies.

· We demand that Donor Countries (members of the

Organisation of Economic Development and ation

or OECD and middle-income countries):

· Fulfill existing commitments to adequately fund the

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

and other HIV/AIDS financing mechanisms with at least

$10 billion of new funding annually as a proportion of

GDP.

· Donor agencies could give funds to the developing

countries for not only prevention but also for the

medicines.

· We demand that Multilateral Institutions (including

WHO, WTO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, the Global Fund, etc.):

· Immediately develop a strategic plan including

specific targets and timelines to achieve the goal of

providing ARV treatment for at least 3 million people

by 2005

· Increase investments into research and development

for better drugs, diagnostics, vaccines and

microbicides.

· Define a research & development agenda that will

meet the needs of resource-limited settings including

simplified treatment regimens (ARV therapy, TB);

simplified diagnostic and monitoring tools (for ARV

therapy, TB, management of OIs)microbicides and

vaccines.

Signatures of infected and affected people

Campaign promoted and supported by AIDS Desk, CReNIEO

and NCA. For more details contact Dr.Sheila Shyamprasad, State

Convener, State Secretariat, 94 Purasawalkam High Road, s,

Chennai-600 010. TN, India Phone: +91-44-6432454

/5329108 Fax: +91-44-6431144 email: guruclin@...

____________________

Ulaganathan Irudayasamy <irudaya_swamy@...>

_________________________