[india-drug] AP govt to supply free anti-retrovirals from April

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

AP govt to supply free anti-retrovirals from April
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Tuesday, February 17, 2004 12:45 IST 
Our Bureau, Hyderabad

The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to distribute anti-retroviral
drugs freely to HIV/AIDS patients from four designated centres in the
state from April 1, under a central government programme. The
government has decided on free supply as a policy as prices have come
down drastically, according to the state Health Minister, Kodela
Sivaprasada Rao. 

The four centres are Osmania, Andhra, Guntur and Tirupati medical
colleges. The AP government is also contemplating opening another
centre at Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences at Hyderabad. 

The state has an estimated 4.5 lakh HIV/AIDS patients out of a total of
45 lakh patients in the country. The prevalence of AIDS has come down
from about 2 per cent to 1.06 per cent due to combined efforts of
officials, doctors, politicians and voluntary organisations. 

AP is among the six states selected for the programme. Under stage II
of the programme, the anti-retroviral drugs would be made available
free of cost at all other medical college hospitals from October 2 and
under stage III, to be implemented from December 1, at all district
headquarter hospitals in the state.


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