Only 2 per cent HIV infected mothers get drugs in India: Report

[Guest guest]

Only 2 per cent HIV infected mothers get drugs in India: Report

Savita Verma

NEW DELHI, May 21: " I did not have any information (on HIV). May be

counselling and drugs would have prevented my two children from

getting infected with the virus and saved their lives. " This is what

happened to a woman in Madhya Pradesh six or seven years ago. And the

situation has not changed much since then, according to a new report

by an international group which said that only two per cent of HIV-

infected pregnant women in India received drugs to prevent infection

getting transmitted to their babies.

Namita Nanda, now a 26-year-old woman who established Orissa AIDS

Solidarity Forum, said she was married at the age of 16 to a 32-year-

old truck driver from Madhya Pradesh.

The husband, who was infected with HIV, died in 2001 and she was

thrown out by her in-laws. She returned to her native state Orissa.

Her biggest regret is that her children have been infected which

could have been prevented if there was counselling and drugs.

" There is only one centre in Orissa where free drugs for AIDS

treatment are given. And discrimination is very prevalent, " said

Namita. While the government has committed to provide second line of

AIDS drugs (for patients who have become resistant to initial drugs),

she said, " people in my area are not even getting first line of

drugs. " What several reports have been revealing is corroborated by

Namita who said it was the women who bore the brunt of

discrimination. Many HIV positive women are thrown out of their homes

and have nowhere to go. She is keen to set up a drop-in centre for

HIV positive women where they can live and earn a living.

According to the new report " Tackling political barriers to end

AIDS " , produced by ActionAid, the percentage of HIV positive pregnant

women getting drugs to prevent mother to child infection is the same

in China as in India at two per cent and is 2.1 per cent in Nepal. In

Cambodia four per cent of infected pregnant women receive drugs to

prevent infection in their babies and in Vietnam, it is seven per

cent. Three countries ~ India, South Africa and Nigeria ~ accounted

for around one million deaths in 2005, a third of the global total,

Across the world, only nine per cent of HIV positive pregnant women

receive drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission and three out

of four HIV positive people who urgently need ART (anti-retroviral

therapy or AIDS treatment) still lack access.

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