Since over three weeks now, 35-year-old Nazma Shaikh (name changed) has been having a hard time procuring her medication for AIDS. Five out of ten anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres in Mumbai, which provide medication for HIV/AIDS patients, had been running out of drugs.
"I work as a domestic servant and find it difficult to travel every day to an ART centre for collecting the drugs. Last week, I had visited the Siddharth Hospital at Goregaon for the third time, but returned empty handed," Nazma told dna.
Dr Srikala Acharya, director of Maharashtra AIDS Control Society (MDACS) admitted that Mumbai was facing drug stock outs of first line ART drugs for close to two weeks.
"There were stock outs. The ART drugs are supplied from the central government's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO). We were waiting for the drugs to reach us from there," said Dr Acharya.
Close to 6,500 patients on ART treatment of Tenofovir and Lamivudine combination in Siddartha Hospital in Goregaon, MT Agarwal Hospital in Mulund, Sion Hospital, Nair Hospital and KEM Hospital are being denied their dosages. "The doctors were signing our prescriptions saying there was no stock. Denying ART drugs to an HIV patient entails their viral load to increase. If HIV patients go without drugs, they are susceptible to catching infections, which would be like killing them," said Ganesh Acharya, a social worker at Mumbai AIDS Forum.
State-run JJ Hospital is the only ART centre in state where second line HIV drugs are presently available. Amar Chaudhary, 54, travels all the way from Raigad to collect his drugs each week. "While earlier, a month's dosage was provided, I was meted only one week of medicines last time," lamented Chaudhary. While an ART centre has a limit of handling 4,000 patients according to the national guidelines, JJ Hospital sees a whopping 12,000 patients, of which 1,500 are on advanced second line ART treatment.
"The moment we came to know about the unavailability of these medicines, our partner NGO, Delhi Network of Positive People wrote a letter on July 31, 2014 to Dr. Rathore, DDG, NACO, to immediately ensure that medicines reach these centres," said Dr Eldred Tellis, director, Sankalp Rehabiliation Trust.
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