India Lags Behind Other Countries in Access to Anti-AIDS Drugs

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India Lags Behind Other Countries in Access to Anti-AIDS Drugs

By Anjana Pasricha

New Delhi, 22 April 2007. India is lagging behind many countries in providing

anti-retroviral drugs to people afflicted with the AIDS virus. As Anjana

Pasricha reports from New Delhi, officials say efforts are being made to step up

access to the drugs, in the country estimated to have the highest number of HIV

victims in the world.

A recent report by the World Health organization, UNICEF and UNAIDS

estimates that less than 15 percent of HIV-positive people in India

who need anti-retroviral drugs are receiving them.

The report says 55,000 people get anti-retroviral therapy at

government centers, and another 15,000 at private clinics. That is

only a small proportion of those whose immune systems are so damaged

that anti-retroviral drugs are prescribed.

The number of HIV-positive women receiving drugs for prevention of

transmission from mother to child is even lower - a meager three

percent.

Overall, India is estimated to have 5.7 million HIV carriers, which

is thought to be the highest number of any country in the world.

But the report notes that India lags behind several other high-

prevalence countries. For example, in South Africa, as many as 32

percent of HIV patients needing medication have access to the drugs.

In Kenya, the figure is 44 percent, and in Nigeria, 26 percent.

The head of India's National AIDS Control Organization, Sujata Rao,

says India has to identify patients who need the treatment before it

can significantly expand coverage.

" Our biggest challenge today is phenomenally upscaling the access to

testing…. We need to test 22 million people per year, " said

Rao. " Unless we expand the pool of the tested number, we will not be

able to get the number of people, the patients or the mothers to whom

we need to reach out. This is where we are going to be focusing

attention on. "

Indian officials meanwhile say new concerns have emerged about the

spread of HIV among injecting drug users, or IDUs.

It was believed that most such cases were concentrated in the remote

northeast. But Sujata Rao says the virus has been found among IDUs in

other parts of the country.

" There is now evidence to certainly show [that] Delhi, Punjab,

Mumbai, that means in the mainland of the country, also we do have

IDU, and HIV transmission through IDU. That makes it a larger

problem, " said Rao. " That is something of concern because it is

mainly young people who take to drugs, and it is very difficult to

put them off drugs, they are difficult to access, difficult to work

with. "

Indian officials say the cornerstone of the country's strategy to

control the spread of AIDS remains prevention, and it is stepping up

education and awareness programs as well as distribution of condoms.

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