The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Second line ART from January next

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 01, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Second line ART from January next

Sahana Charan

Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to announce new strategy on World Aids Day

Mumbai and Chennai centres will launch it first
The country will be covered by the end of 2008

Bangalore: A large number of HIV positive persons who are on first line Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and may have developed resistance to it have something to look forward to next year.

The Union Government, through the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), will start second line ART from January next year and Karnataka is slated to adopt it in the following two or three months.

According to official sources in the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) and NACO, the first ART centres to roll out free second line ART for HIV positive persons will be J.J. Hospital in Mumbai and Tambaram ART Centre in Chennai.

Subsequently, NACO will roll out the therapy in one ART centre each in every State covering the whole country by the end of next year.

This will be announced on World AIDS Day on Saturday by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss in Delhi.

Quality of life

Anti-Retroviral Therapy is the only recommended treatment that inhibits the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). ART drugs slow down the replication of HIV. When these drugs are given in combination, HIV replication and immune deterioration can be delayed, and survival and quality of life improved.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that in treatment programmes in resource-limited settings, HIV infected adolescents and adults should start therapy when they have clinical AIDS, regardless of CD4 count. When CD4 counts are available, all HIV infected people with less than 200 CD4 cells/mm3 should be offered treatment.

“At present, 10,500 persons with HIV/AIDS are availing themselves of free first line therapy in 17 centres in Karnataka. Only those who show resistance to first line ART or in whom there is clinical failure to respond to first line treatment, such persons will be eligible for second line ART. The cost of second line anti-retroviral treatment is around Rs. 1 lakh a year and most patients cannot afford it,” a KSAPS official told The Hindu.

In all, more than a lakh HIV positive persons across the country are getting free anti-retroviral drugs through 127 centres.

As on November this year, the centres providing ART in Karnataka are Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Bangalore; Mysore Medical College, Mysore; Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli; Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary; district hospitals of Davangere, Mangalore, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Kolar, Raichur, Chamarajnagar, Hassan, Tumkur, Koppal, Shimoga and Bagalkot.

“We are happy that the Government has decided to start second line ART by January as we have been campaigning for this cause for sometime.

“Around two to three per cent of the HIV positive persons who are on anti-retroviral drugs (roughly 200 in Karnataka) would be eligible for the second line treatment,” R. Elango, founder member of the India Network of People Living with HIV, said.

3,717 HIV positive men

As on March 2007, there were 3,717 HIV positive men alive and on ART in Karnataka. Similarly, there are 2,103 HIV positive women, one transgender person and 342 children in the State taking ART.

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