HIV/ AIDS—lip service?
1st December, another world AIDS day comes and goes. Seminars,
workshops, rallies, fairs, even concerts and beauty contests but to what end?
The big question on everybody's mind is- "has it really served the
purpose?" Or is this all lip service?
The daily headlines runs ‘$120 million given by the US for fighting
AIDS in India’ and ‘$100 million donated by Bill Gates of Microsoft’ and
a lot of others before that. But does this money really at the very
least, trickle down to the people who need it the most- persons living
with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)? Almost 16 years have elapsed since the first HIV
case was documented in this country from the state of Tamil Nadu. Still
medical care facilities for PLWHA are in their nascent stages and is
also secondary on the agenda of both the govt. and the innumerable Non
Govt. Organizations (NGOs) working in this field. Doesn’t it seem rather
strange that even after so many years and a possible epidemic looming
large we still have no plans to fight this disease with a more focused,
scientific and humanitarian strategy.
The principal aim of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO),
which dictates national and state policy on HIV/AIDS, remains “prevention
and control of the disease”. However mention is made of “improving
services for the care PHWHA in times of sickness both at hospitals and at
homes through community care”. While the primary aim has been laudably
well executed, a similar intensity in implementing the latter clause has
been missing.
Today’s scenario of HIV/AIDS warrants a dual policy of combining
prevention with care. No longer can we ignore care of PLWHA with the plea
that funds are limited while continuing to shout hoarse about prevention
only. It is something akin to treating the symptoms of a disease other
than the disease itself. True, treatment is pretty expensive for a
PLWHA, costing anything between Rs.1,800 and Rs.2,400 a month for a drug
regimen alone. This requires phenomenal financial commitment by the
state, but it is also a fact that there is a lot of money coming into this
sector. A little jugglery here and there and then there may be enough
money for care. For instance under the Govt.’s Mother to Child
Transmission project, expensive anti-retroviral drug therapy is being given in
select centers. But there is no plan to provide even a part of the
therapy for PLWHAs who should be direct beneficiaries of any Government AIDS
policy. Serious thought must also be given for setting up of special
clinics/hospitals for HIV/AIDS for it is true that these patients have to
face discrimination in general hospitals.
There are so many conflicting figures about HIV&AIDS in India, NACO
estimates about 3.8 million people to be having HIV/AIDS presently in
India. The latest figures for Manipur released by MACS is 13979 HIV +ves.
These data are mostly based on reported cases from Govt. hospitals and
Antenatal Clinics but the majority of the people use private health
facilities and so, such cases go unreported.
In our state the figure of death due to HIV/AIDS reported so far
stands at about 250. But, this is true that everybody knows somebody or the
other who have died of this disease and this leads to the question of
how far our data is correct. Yet, regardless of the actual numbers of
infected people, it is quite evident the disease is spreading rapidly and
is almost reaching epidemic proportions.
The need of the hour is the political will, integrated approach and
commitment to impeccable medical practices-clean gloves, syringes, blood
transfusion techniques so that we can meet the challenge posed by
HIV/AIDS head on.
Dr. Nelson Loitongbam writes regularly for e-pao.net.
He is a practising physician in Moreh - a border town in Manipur.
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