One crore Indians may affected by AIDS

[Guest guest]

One crore Indians may affected by Aids

Times of India.Sunday, 13 May 2001

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Dr Subhash Hira, director of AIDS Research & Control Centre, Mumbai,

speaks to Gayatri Ramanathan on the epidemic in India and a possible

cure that his team has developed

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An ayurvedic cure for AIDS? One that is effective as well as

affordable and stands the rigorous testing procedures followed

internationally for allopathic medicines? Could be, if what Dr

Subhash Hira and his team at ARCON have been working towards, comes

to fruitition. Hira and his team have been experimenting with a

variety of traditional ayurvedic plant extracts to control the

production of HIV in the human body as well as boost the bodys immune

systems once it is infected with HIV.

Among the 12 extracts the team identified, four were found to boost

the count of cells (CD4 cells) that take care of the bodys immune

system. While six other extracts were found to push the production of

HIV cells down to negligible levels. Experiments in ARCONs laboratory

have revealed that these extracts have boosted the bodys immune

activity by 200 per cent over a period of seven days.

Hiras team has also been dosing five patient volunteers with the

extracts over a one-year period in a pilot trial. The team found that

CD4 cell counts increased in the patients by 50 to 200 per cent.

While the production of HIV, as compared to western drugs like AZT,

Saquinavir and 3TC, was found to have decreased by a factor of 10.

The therapy would also be many times cheaper, says Hira.

What is the prevalence for HIV infection in India?

Our surveillance centres have reported about 38 lakh patients with

HIV/AIDS all over the country in December 2000. By 2004, that could

rise to 80 lakh or one crore. In Mumbai today, four out of five cases

showing symptoms of possible AIDS-realted infections, turn out to be

so. The southern states are now reporting higher number of HIV cases.

Vizag has really blown in the last two years. Until then, Andhra did

not show any major signs of epidemic. But today, over two per cent of

the adult population in that state is infected.

What has triggered such a massive growth of the AIDS epidemic in

India?

All the factors that affect the economic growth affect the growth of

HIV. In a democracy like India, bad governance and economic upheavals

and factors like high unemployment will definitely have an impact. If

many people are unemployed there will be an upsurge in unprotected

sexual activity. Also, our surveillance and control programmes in the

past have not been very effective.

Isnt it simplistic to say that more unemployment equals more

unprotected sex, therefore more HIV?

It sounds simplistic but it is not. If you are employed you have more

money to engage in leisure activities like going to the movies. Or

you are simply at work. If you are at home you tend to engage more in

sexual activity. This has been proved all over the world if your

economy is doing well, then the epidemic is under control. HIV is a

developmental disease.

What measures can be taken to control the spread of HIV now?

It is definitely possible to slow down the epidemic in a short term.

Control can be a long-term strategy. It needs to be done on a war

footing. But that sense of urgency has not sunk in, theres still a

lot of disbelief that there can be an epidemic of this nature, in

this proportion. Till that sinks in, nothing can be done

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