Shortage in AIDS drugs across Maharashtra

The state health department has admitted to an acute shortage of second line HIV drugs at the only Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre at JJ Hospital and blamed the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) for the short supply. However, the health minister stated that the Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) has provided increased grants to JJ Hospital to procure drugs for the second line of treatment for AIDS-affected patients.

In a written reply to a question posed by MLC Sanjay Dutt in the Legislative Council, Shetty stated that the drugs to JJ Hospital and other ART centres are provided by NACO, through MSACS. There is a delay in the supply of first and second line drugs, which has led to a shortage of drugs in these centres. The drugs at JJ ART centre are dispensed free of cost.

As per the reply, the drugs are being distributed to patients for a period of 10-15 days, but till some time ago, patients or relatives had to visit the centre every two days to get the drugs being distributed in very small quantities.

The JJ ART centre itself has over 900 patients on the second line drugs. Earlier, HIV+ patients and their relatives had staged a protest outside MSACS at Wadala, seeking help from the society. Some of the patients did not even get even a month's supply since November 2013. There are four ART centres in Sangli, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Pune for second line drugs. J J and Sion hospitals also offer second line paediatric HIV drugs.