All HIV Patients to get Second line Treatment free

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

Congratulation to PLHA community those who are purchasing 2nd line ART

from private sources & spent lots of money in it. I also self afford and take

2nd line ART from 15 yrs and spend more then 20lakh rupees in this treatment

even sold my property, took loans from relatives and friends. Today is Diwali

for all 1st line & 2nd line country PLHIV.

 

Now peoples can use the money to take the nutritious food.

 

Thanks to Soliceter General Gopal Subramaniam, Cheif Justice S H Kapadia,

Justice K S Radhakrishnan & Swatanter Kumar the Health Minister & NACO.

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All HIV patients to get second-line treatment free

Kounteya Sinha & Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Nov 13, 2010, 02.48am IST

DELHI: All HIV patients put on first line antiretroviral therapy (ART) before

2004 but who became resistant to those drugs will now receive the life saving

second line treatment free of cost from the National AIDS Control Organisation

(NACO).

This is irrespective of whether the patients were receiving first line ART in a

government centre or a private hospital. This major policy shift was finalised

by NACO on Thursday night.

Till now, NACO only provided second line treatment to those HIV patients who

were part of its ART centres and had become resistant to first line drugs. Those

patients on first line treatment in private hospitals or clinics were not

eligible.

Second line treatment is tremendously expensive and not affordable for the

common man. Also, it was only available in NACO's ART centres. So, patients who

did not get first line treatment in NACO's ART centres perished if they became

resistant.

Solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam informed a Supreme Court Bench comprising

Chief Justice S H Kapadia, Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar that

the health ministry took this decision on Friday. He informed the SC that

details of the decision would be intimated through an affidavit in two weeks.

So what happens to those who were put on first line ART post-2004 but have

become resistant to first line drugs? Expert committees in the 10 centres of

excellence presently in charge of giving second line treatment will take a call.

ART is the only known treatment that inhibits HIV. The drugs slow down the

replication of HIV and immune deterioration is delayed leading to an improvement

in the survival and quality of life.

While first line drugs cost NACO Rs 5,000 per patient per year, second line cost

them Rs 35,000 per patient per year. Patients, however, get the treatment free

of charge.

India is home to an estimated 2.3 million HIV patients of which 6 lakh would

require to be on ART. At present, 3.55 lakh HIV patients are receiving first

line treatment in 285 NACO ART centres.

Ten centres have rolled out second line ART to 1,701 HIV patients. Five more

centres in Nagpur, Pune, Salem, Aurangabad and Surat have been trained to start

second line ART while two centres in Vijayawada and Hubli are being prepared.

India rolled out second line ART for the first time on December 1, 2008 in

Mumbai's J J Hospital and Chennai's Tambaram ART centre.

Resistance to first line treatment mainly happens because of poor adherence to

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

patients die within a few years.

A CD-4 count test is used to gauge immunity levels of an HIV-infected patient

and to assess whether damage caused by the virus requires life-saving ART. The

CD-4 count in healthy adults ranges from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimetre

of blood. In HIV infected people, it goes down by 60 cells per cubic millimetre

of blood per year as HIV progresses. ART is administered when an HIV positive

person registers a CD-4 count under 200.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/All-HIV-patients-to-get-second-line-tre\

atment-free/articleshow/6915022.cms#ixzz15DWyoClZ

________________________

Comments Invited

Hari Singh

National GIPA Coordinator

Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS

Executive Board Member Dnp+

Skype id- hari.singh963

Emailid- hari@.../www.inpplus.net

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