[india-drug] Karnataka govt, Gates Foundation launched $25 m programme for

[Sunitha Srinivas <s.srinivas@ru.ac.za>]

AIDS
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Karnataka govt, Gates Foundation launched $25 m programme for AIDS
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http://www.pharmabiz.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=19387

Tuesday, December 09, 2003 08:00 IST 
Our Bureau, Bangalore
(An interesting perspective keeping in mind that India is next only to
South Africa in terms of people affected with HIV-infected people. The
WHO-UNAIDS decision of 3 by 5 will be posted as well)

Discussions regarding issues such as: Are we ready with the major
upgrade of the health care system, recruiting and training large
numbers of health care professionals to meet these challenges, would
make it interesting for all health care professionals to share their
thoughts. Thanks?SS) 



Karnataka government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a
$25 million (Rs.115crore) programme to scale up HIV prevention in
Karnataka where an estimated five lakh people are infected with the
virus.

The initiative launched by Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna is part
of the Foundation's broader national HIV prevention package of $200
million over a period of five years through Avahan- the Indian AIDS
initiative. Karnataka is the first state to receive the amount out of
the $100 million grant announced earlier.

The other states that would get grants are Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and
Nagaland, according to Ashok Alexander, director, Avahan.

JVR Prasad, secretary, ministry of health and family welfare and
co-chairman said 49 high profile districts were chosen for the
initiative and Bellary was one of them. He referred to the anti viral
therapy to be started in 2004 and said the Indian manufacturers of
drugs had agreed to reduce the prices of drugs. 

Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society will ensure to improve the task
of providing HIV counselling and testing, behaviour change
communication, condom marketing and improved diagnosis and treatment of
infections covering 15 districts in five years. 

Karnataka chief minister expressed that the Foundation responded
quickly to the state's request to provide assistance for scaling up the
HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

As far as the state was concerned it was one of the six high prevalence
states in the country. Over 5 lakh people that is 1.6 per cent of the
population are affected with HIV in an undiagnosed condition. Around
23,063 individuals had been diagnosed with the disease. High prevalence
rate was reported in Karnataka's 15 districts out the total
27districts. 

Pointing out that India was next only to South Africa in terms of
people affected with HIV-infected people, the Karnataka chief minister
said that India stood the risk of soon having the most number of
patients if it did not act on time.

As this is affecting the productive age group, unless controlled in
time it could cause severe economic-social loss to the country. 

The Foundation also agreed to double the grant from the present $100
million to $200 million and Karnataka could hope for an additional
grant.

There are 49 high-risk districts in the country and the disease had
shown signs of stabilisation, especially in Mumbai and Chennai since
1998, following the implementation of control measures through
national-level AIDS programmes. A special initiative to involve one
lakh people in anti retroviral procedure would be introduced from April
2004


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