Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 1
Nearly eight in every 10 persons living with HIV are under treatment, according to the government data, and efforts are underway to expand the coverage basket.
On World AIDS Day today, the Ministry of Health reiterated its resolve to make India HIV/AIDS free by 2030 with stress on zero infections by then.
The National AIDS Control Organisation statistics for 2017-2018 show 79 per cent people living with HIV know their status which makes it easier to seek treatment.
“Post treatment, around 79 per cent people have their viral load suppressed. We are on the right track to ridding India of HIV,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said today.
India has 21 lakh people living with HIV and carries the third largest burden of the disease in the world.
Treatment access remains a challenge with most patients finding it difficult to use anti-retro viral dispensing facilities. Treatment gap remains the big challenge for HIV control.
The ambitious goal of ending HIV by 2030 notwithstanding, as per the latest HIV estimates published by the National Aids Control Organisation, India has reported only marginal improvements in the fight against the epidemic between 2015 and now. In real terms, there has been a rise in AIDS-related deaths between 2015 and 2017 with 69,110 dying of the infection in 2017 as against 67,612 two years ago.
The number of people living with the infection has risen from 21.17 lakh in 2015 to 21.40 lakh now.
HIV prevalence in adults has declined over the years and is now 0.22 per cent as against 0.28 per cent in 2015.
Experts working in the HIV sector say new infections remain a challenge with 40 per cent being reported among women. As of 2015, there were 89,000 new HIV infections in India. This has marginally reduced to 87,000, showing the slow progress in the area.
India has pledged to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 by halting and reversing it and recently passed a law to ensure non-discrimination with people living with HIV.
The apex court further aided the anti-HIV fight by reading down Section 377 of the IPC which criminalised same sex relationship between consenting adults.
The section was leading to HIV burden among men having sex with men going unreported as the patients went underground for fear of punishment.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2Y5JG4t
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