1 December is World AIDS Day, and India is facing an HIV epidemic.
India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world. There were 2.1 million people living with HIV in India in 2017. Over 80,000 new infections and 69,000 AIDS-related deaths occured in India in 2017.
To top that, HIV drugs are becoming harder and harder to find.
Over 750,000 people in India depend on government-run centres for free distribution of Antiretroviral drugs. Many others pay anywhere from Rs 3,000-25,000 for a month’s supply of antiretroviral drugs. But what happens when the supply of this life-saving medicine runs dry?
On 11 July 2018, Hari Shankar was faced with a crisis. Among the 11 government-run Antiretroviral therapy centres in Delhi, one had run out of HIV drugs.
Shankar is the project director at Delhi Network of Positive People, an NGO that acts as a support group for people with HIV/AIDS.
In many states across India, AIDS societies and treatment centres frequently run out of Antiretroviral treatment or ART medication. The crisis is so frequent that it got its own name. It’s called a ‘stock-out’. And it isn’t a recent development.
“Since 2004, we’ve been monitoring the stock-out and the situation is not improving, sadly. We write two to three emails every week. Imagine the condition in the Northeast interiors. Even when NACO celebrated 10 years of fighting HIV in 2014, we protested because we still face shortages.”Loon Gangte, Founder, Delhi Network of Positive People
Loon Gangte is a Delhi-based activist who founded Delhi Network of Positive People. He’s been on HIV treatment since 2002. He’s written to NACO, the National AIDS Control Organisation, two to three times every week for over 10 years, with no reply.
But has this always been the case? No.
From 2000 to 2011, India actually made significant progress in tackling its HIV epidemic. From 2000 to 2012, the number of new HIV cases declined by half.
A major reason for this was the country's National AIDS Control Programme, which has been particularly effective at targeting high-risk groups, such as men who have sex with men, sex workers and people who inject drugs. Till 2012, NACO largely relied on international funds to do its work. In 2012, India committed to financing 90 percent of its HIV and AIDS programmes.
However, a lack of actual access to the antiretroviral treatment, and the frequent stock-outs has led to a WORRYING increase in the number of new infections and AIDS-related deaths.
People living with HIV(PLHIV) and undergoing ART treatment need to take their medication daily. And they are often advised to stock up on medication for a month, and in some cases even two or three months.
As one doctor told us, the monthly doses of antiretroviral drugs are more important than food for many patients. But where are they supposed to turn when there’s barely enough supply to last 15 days, let alone a month?
A woman living with HIV, in fact, approached Delhi High Court about the shortage of medicines at ART centres. The court has asked the health ministry for a reply. But with the next hearing in the case scheduled for March 2019, what is she supposed to do if she can’t get her medication?
Is there a solution to the crisis? Yes. But Loon says, more than ten years of inaction tells him that there’s a lack of political will to act towards it.
If the government doesn’t act soon, the progress that was made from 2000 to 2011 may soon be for nothing.
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