Source: healthissuesindia.com<\/p>\n
Expanding access to treatment and targeting vulnerable populations will be a core part of a strategy to bring down the number of HIV cases in India, according to recent reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Union Health Ministry intends to reduce the number of HIV cases in the country by 20,000 on a yearly basis in 2019 and 2020,\u00a0according to an anonymous official.\u00a0This will involve ensuring that antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres are made available for the treatment of individuals with HIV. Claiming that 540 such centres are operational nationwide at present, the official stated that the Ministry has directed an expansion of the same, so that \u201call government and private medical colleges will have ART centres only for the treatment of HIV patients.<\/p>\n
As part of its strategy to reduce HIV infections,\u00a0the Ministry will be conducting outreach to populations with a higher-than-average prevalence of the condition\u00a0\u2013 including marginalised and often ignored persons such as those in prisons and women\u2019s remand homes where the official claims that HIV cases are \u201cfive to six times more than that among [the] general population.\u201d\u00a0According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO),\u00a0the rate of HIV infection in India\u2019s prisons stands at around 2.5 percent compared to a prevalence of 0.28 percent amongst the general population. Unsafe sex and intravenous drug use are identified as the drivers behind the comparatively high prevalence of HIV among India\u2019s inmates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A HIV prevalence of 0.28 percent may seem relatively small but in a country as populous as India, this translates to a significant number of cases.\u00a0India is home to 2.1 million HIV-positive individuals \u2013 the third-largest epidemic of HIV in the world.\u00a0Fortunately, India is making progress in the fight against HIV\/AIDS. Between 2010 and 2017,\u00a0the number of new HIV infections fell from 120,000 to 88,000 whilst AIDS-related deaths fell from 160,000 to 90,000.However, there are gaps in this progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The proportion of individuals living with HIV aware of their status\u00a0stands at 79 percent, of whom a mere 56 percent receive ART medicines\u00a0to improve their quality of life, life expectancy, and reduce the risk of transmission. AVERT, an international HIV\/AIDS charity,\u00a0notes\u00a0that \u201cdespite free antiretroviral treatment being available, uptake remains low as many people face difficulty in accessing clinics.\u201d In addition, it states that \u201cthere have been shortfalls in the procurement, management and distribution of ARVs, HIV testing kits and other HIV commodities, mainly due to supply chain bottlenecks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the major issues impeding expanding access to treatment is social stigma which can facilitate a \u201clack of adherence to treatment\u201d, particularly \u201camong young people\u201d. According to AVERT, \u201cvarious reasons exist for this including the fear of disclosure and social stigma, low social support, inadequate communication and education, and depression related to living with HIV.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Centre has enacted\u00a0legislation both expanding state-provided care under \u201ctest and treat\u201d strategies and prohibiting discrimination against individuals with HIV\/AIDS.\u00a0As part of its new strategy to combat the disease, the official\u00a0expressed\u00a0hope that \u201cgreater number of ART centres will help the government in identifying patients and get them adequate treatment to further reduce the burden of the disease.\u201d Meanwhile, they acknowledged that counteracting discrimination is vital: \u201cit requires [an] aggressive awareness campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1586,1483,1587,478,52,1484,53],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aids-hiv","tag-ambitious","tag-antiretroviral-therapy-art","tag-art-centres","tag-health-minister","tag-hiv","tag-naco","tag-treatment"],"yoast_head":"\n