Free drugs offer brings hope to HIV patients

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Free drugs offer brings hope to HIV patients

With the Centre deciding to provide anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs free to

persons with HIV/AIDS in Tamil Nadu and five other States, the State AIDS

Control Society will now have to evolve a model for project implementation.

A six-member coordination committee, set up to examine the feasibility of

providing ARVs free or at subsidised rates in December last, will revise its

role to develop a protocol for administration of the drugs. The committee was

constituted after the then Health Minister, S. Semmalai, gave an assurance that

the State would consider providing ARVs free in all government hospitals.

He was responding to a plea by the positive persons, who found it difficult

to bear the burden the cost of the drugs imposed on their modest incomes. Till

now, the drugs are not administered in government hospitals and the patients

receive treatment only for opportunistic infections. In the Government Thoracic

Hospital at Tambaram, ARVs are administered to select patients, whose viral load

count is extremely high and even that supply is not consistent.

" ARVs are given to people whose viral load has gone beyond a certain limit.

With this cocktail of drugs, the viral load comes down significantly. This, in

turn, increases the quality of life and reduces the risk of transmission, " says

Bimal , director, AIDS Prevention and Control Project(APAC). A

significant change will likely occur in transmission of infection from positive

mothers to children once free ARVs are provided to the women, experts feel.

" In Tamil Nadu, 1.1 million women get pregnant every year. Of these, 16,000

mothers are infected. They pass on the infection to at least 5,000 children

every year, " says P. Kuganantham, UNICEF consultant for the Prevention of

Parent-to-Child Transmission programme. Supplying ARVs to pregnant women makes

breastfeeding safe. " According to World Health Organisation figures, 1.5

million children in developing countries die without breast milk every year.

HIV itself causes the death of 1.5 million children in 10 years. So making

breastfeeding safe for positive mothers will be a major step in containing the

epidemic, " he explains.

The committee, headed by the Tamilnadu State AIDS Control Society(TANSACS)

project director, tried to examine the ramifications of introducing ARVs

treatment in all government hospitals, including financial implications and the

mode of administering the therapy. " We even lobbied with the Centre to promote

this concept. Though it indicated a heavy financial burden, we knew that it was

important to find funds and negotiated with pharmaceutical companies to cushion

the cost, " says K. Deenabandu, TANSACS project director.

Though the monthly price of ARVs has dropped from Rs.30,000 10 years ago to

around Rs.1,200 now, the drugs still remain beyond the reach of most PLWHA,

according to P. Kausalya, president, Positive Network of Women (PWN+).

Therefore, the Union Minister's announcement rings in hope to positive persons.

K.K. Abraham, Indian Network of Positive Persons (INP+) president, says that

simultaneously, diagnostic facilities in the districts should be strengthened.

Source: The Hindu,December 2,2003,Madurai Edition

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