ARV drugs should be available to common man: workshop

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ARV drugs should be available to common man: workshop

BY HERALD REPORTER

PANJIM, MARCH 18 – Anti-Retroviral Therapy is listed to be one way

to combat HIV/AIDS but high costs of the Anti Retro Viral (ARV)

drugs is known to have limited patients from accessing these drugs.

" More people should have access to ARV drugs, " said Dr Adam ,

physician for infectious diseases and research fellow from the

University of Melbourne. Dr was addressing doctors at a

workshop on HIV/AIDS Clinical Care at Panjim organised by the

Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in collaboration with the

GSACS and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The primary aim of ARV drugs is to suppress viral replication. It is

known that with ARV drugs the balance within the immune system is

restored.

The ARV drugs also slow down the disease progression and improve the

quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients. However these drugs are costly

said Dr .

In India, the delivery of ARV is mostly through the private sector.

There are some public sector provisions as well. " The problem is

that the distribution of ARV drugs through the hospitals is

limited, " according to Dr .

It would cost a patient Rs 2500 per month for the ARV drugs he said.

Due to this high cost it is seen that adherence to the drugs is poor

according to Dr .

According to Dr , in India before June 2005, it was estimated

that 33000 to 87000 patients were given ARV drugs but around 735000

patients who required the drugs did not get the drugs. This means

that only four to nine per cent of those who required the ARV drugs

were given the treatment and the remaining (around 91-96 per cent)

did not get the drugs. Hence the provision of ARV drugs was limited

according to the figures cited by Dr . (The figures are based

on the WHO and Government of India records).

Referring to the situation in Goa, Dr V N Jindal, dean of the Goa

Medical College (GMC) said that the government is trying to take

care of prevention and treatment for HIV/AIDS.

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