AIDS has struck the hardest in India’s villages

[Guest guest]

AIDS has struck the hardest in India's villages

Dec 7, 2004 6:13 IST

Indian jawans visit the Dhadri village located on National Highway 8

every week. The village is a quick stopover for truck drivers and

lonely army jawans.

The women they visit are from the Rajnath community where prostitution

has been a traditional occupation for decades. However, the fallout is

only now being felt.

In one year, 15 women in three adjoining villages have died of AIDS.

Their customers too have not been spared. As fear of the disease

spreads, the need to fight AIDS is being felt like never before.

" When men come to us, we now tell them to use condoms, or else take

their money and go somewhere else, " says Anita, a sex worker.

Just five years ago, no one in the village had even heard of the

disease. However, it is now discussed openly in highway dhabas.

" I have seen men who go to sex workers. Then when they go home, they

infect their wives. When children are born, they are also infected. In

a year or two, the men die, " says Manjit Singh, a truck driver.

The disease has struck the hardest in India's villages. 59 per cent of

India's HIV/AIDS cases are reported from rural areas where ignorance

is high and access to care the lowest.

Over the last couple of years, non-governmental organisations are

trying to bring in change. Campaigns like free condom distribution are

being done aggressively.

" I have lost two brothers to this disease. I stopped working and

decided to do this instead. I am trying to make a difference in

people's lives, " says Rajendra, a social worker.

In 1986, the first case of HIV/AIDS in India surfaced in Tamil Nadu.

Today, there are 5.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS - second only

to South Africa in terms of numbers.

Though India's HIV prevalence rate is still less than 1 per cent,

projected statistics show that in the next 10 years, India could have

more AIDS cases than the whole of Africa put together.

Apart from ignorance and discrimination, the biggest problem is lack

of treatment.

Only a handful can afford the expensive anti-retroviral or AVR

treatment, drugs that can slowdown the onset of AIDS.

A year's supply costs around Rs 15,000. However, even the government

programme to supply free drugs to those who need it most has run into

heavy weather.

As many as 10 ARVs, produced by three pharmaceutical giants, Ranbaxy,

Cipla, Hetero, were taken off the World Health Organisation list of

anti-AIDS drugs early this year for not meeting international standards.

Without the WHO's approval, the government cannot buy any drugs from

de-listed companies.

" We have just enough drugs till mid-March, which is why we are

floating a global tender for more drugs so that it doesn't hamper our

efforts, " says SY Quraishi, Director General, NACO.

Even though there was some relief when two of Cipla's drugs were put

back on the WHO's list last week, the battle to capture markets

between western pharma giants and Indian ones producing cheaper drugs

has only just begun.

However, the casualties of this global war are people living with

HIV/AIDS.

" The government needs to sit with medicine companies and chalk out a

way whereby India can get an advantage in terms of getting drugs at a

cheaper rate.

" It is sad that these cheap drugs are being sent to foreign countries,

but they're not available here for India's HIV patients, " says Anand

Grover, Lawyers Collective.

Health authorities are also looking at new preventive tools such as a

vaccine. Around 30 vaccines are in the clinical trial stage the world

over and India has reported a big breakthrough this year.

The National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) in Pune says it has a new

AIDS vaccine, clinical trials for which will start from January next

year.

" Experiments have been done on animals, and the safety of the vaccine

has also been tested. The immuno response is generated through one

injection, " explains RS Paranjpe, Director, NARI.

Apart from a possible vaccine, the only other method to prevent

transmission is microbicides - a vaginal gel that women can use during

intercourse to prevent infection.

Trials have already started in various parts of the world.

Microbicides are likely to play a significant role in India since 62

per cent of those infected are women, nearly all of whom are

monogamous, married women.

" A study done by UNAIDS shows that 90 per cent of women, who have got

AIDS, are married and have got it from their male partners. The focus

in India has to shift to women, " says Suman Mehta, Director, UNAIDS.

Though the government hopes new infections will plateau by 2007, the

figures show that there is a steady rise in HIV cases among drug users

and young people between 15 and 29.

And with more than half of Asia's AIDS cases in India - 5.1 million

out of 8 million - India faces one of its biggest healthcare

challenges ever.

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