New Delhi, Oct 18
The AIDS Society of India (ASI) on Friday urged the government to include HIV self-testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine, taken to prevent from HIV, in its policies and programmes without much delay.
One in five people living with HIV in the country do not know their HIV status. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended HIV self-testing as part of HIV care cascade as it is an important approach to address gaps in HIV diagnoses, especially among key populations, in 2019.
“We need to ensure that 100 per cent of people living with HIV know their status so that they can receive full cascade of HIV care services and stay virally suppressed (undetectable viral load) – which is essential for them to live full and healthy lives – as well as to end AIDS,” said Dr Ishwar Gilada, President-Emeritus, AIDS Society of India (ASI).
According to government’s fifth edition of National AIDS Control Organisation’s (NACO) ‘Sankalak report 2023’, 79 per cent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) knew their status, 86 per cent of them were on antiretroviral therapy and 93 per cent of them had viral suppression.
The ASI said that this translates into 63 per cent of total PLHIV in India being virally suppressed in 2023 against the target of getting 86 per cent of them virally suppressed by 2025.
“India’s role in the global prevention of HIV-related deaths is unmatched and laudable. However, almost 92 per cent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and persons at risk of contracting HIV globally are consuming ‘made-in-India’ anti-retrovirals (ARVs),” claimed Dr Gilada.