2nd line ARV drugs: Ray of hope for 5,000 HIV+ people

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Ray of hope for 5,000 HIV+ people

22 Nov 2007, 0023 hrs IST, Kounteya Sinha,TNN

NEW DELHI: Nearly 5,000 HIV positive patients in India, who were

facing imminent death because they had become resistant to the first-

line Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) — the only known treatment that

suppresses the HIV virus — have good news coming their way. For,

India has finally decided to roll out the second-line ART from

January 2008.

The announcement will be made by health minister A Ramadoss on World

Aids Day on December 1.

TOI has learnt that two centres — Mumbai's J J Hospital and Chennai's

Tambaram ART centre — will roll out the treatment from January.

Maulana Azad Medical College (Delhi), PGI (Chandigarh) and ART

centres in Kolkata, Manipur and Nagaland will introduce it by April

2008. Nearly 3,000 patients, who have become resistant to first-line

therapy, will be put on second-line by December 2008.

Ten doctors from these centres are being sent to Thailand to study

operational issues relating to second-line therapy in mid-December.

At present, the National Aids Control Programme only provides free

first-line drugs to over 1.05 lakh HIV patients in its 127 ART

centres. Naco estimates that at least 3% of these patients have

become resistant to first-line drugs, thanks to poor adherence to the

treatment regimen. If not put on second-line immediately, most of

these patients would die within a few years. Health secretary Naresh

Dayal said: " We had planned to introduce second-line treatment only

after one lakh HIV patients were put on first-line drugs. Now that we

have crossed that mark, second-line will be introduced in January in

a controlled manner. Only those patients, who have been on first-line

drugs in Naco's ART centres and have become resistant, will be

eligible for second-line. "

Dayal said UNITAID, an international drug purchasing facility, has

offered to donate the drugs to India for the first two years. Naco

will then tie up with India's generic drug makers to provide them. A

health ministry official said: " Ramadoss is yet to decide whether we

will accept UNITAID's donation or tie up with pharma companies from

the start itself. " Under first-line therapy, patients had to consume

two tablets a day. When on second-line, the number will increase to

almost 10 with more side-effects.

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