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A major player in the global fight against AIDS, India called for scaling up coverage of antiretroviral therapy to combat HIV / AIDS. Stressing the importance of continued political commitment, a senior diplomat said competing demands for funding and shifting priorities should not affect efforts to provide adequate resources to fight HIV / AIDS, reports the correspondent. Pharma Letter in India.
Leading the way in the global fight against AIDS, India provides the world with two-thirds of the drugs needed to treat people infected with HIV, according to Indian diplomat Paulomi Tripathi.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Ms. Tripathi, First Secretary of India's Indian Mission, said that these affordable generic drugs had helped increase access to treatment in developing countries, two-thirds of the world's antiretroviral drugs are provided by the Indian pharmaceutical group. industry.
Although "remarkable progress" has been made in the fight against the HIV / AIDS epidemic, she said that significant challenges remain in eliminating HIV / AIDS as a threat to public health. 39, here 2030.
Trade Negotiations
Trade negotiations have been identified as a key element that could threaten the supply of low-cost AIDS drugs. Noting that developing countries have several provisions of international trade law to help them buy life-saving medicines at affordable prices for public health needs, especially HIV / AIDS, the diplomat said that only a few countries used these provisions.
Six Indian companies – Aurobindo, Cipla, Desano, Emcure, Hetero Labs and Laurus Labs have a license from the Medicines Patent Pool, a UN-backed consortium, to manufacture tenofovir / alafenamide anti-AIDS drugs for 112 countries worldwide. development.
Ms. Tripathi spoke at a discussion on "Implementing the HIV / AIDS Policy Statement and Policy Declarations on HIV / AIDS". "Ensuring uninterrupted access to affordable antiretroviral drugs and quality care, as well as adherence to treatment through support services, is needed to address drug resistance", she declared.
In India, the focus is on reducing new infections and the elimination of mother-to-child transmission, as well as on the elimination of stigma and discrimination by 2020 .
New infections have declined by more than 80% in India from the 1995 epidemic peak, and deaths from the disease have decreased by 71% since the peak of 2005.
In India, deaths from TB have been reduced by 84% in India by 2017, three years ahead of the 2020 deadline.
The diplomat said it was time to focus on future challenges and energize research in key areas, including a better diagnosis to identify the maximum number of people infected with HIV and AIDS. 39 expand coverage of antiretroviral therapy, develop a vaccine and new treatments to reduce the need for ART for life.
High cost of second-line schemes
Despite the increasing availability of generic first-line, fixed-dose regimens, second-line regimens continue to cost ten times the cost of first-line agents.
Experts point out that darunavir is a new, expensive agent needed in patients with treatment failure. The National AIDS Organization of India (NACO) is currently providing free access to second-line ARVs to over 5,000 patients with resistance to first-line drugs.
A report released last year by NACO indicated that in India, about 2.14 million people living with HIV in 2017, or 0.22% of people aged 15 to 49 in the country.
According to NACO's annual report, the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have the highest prevalence of HIV cases compared to other states in the country.
"Although there has been a considerable reduction and a downward trend in the registration of new HIV cases in the southern states, the prevalence of HIV in adults remains a major concern: a continuous and constant effort must be made to eradicate it, "said an official of the Telangana AIDS Control Society.
Government measures
The government is aware of the situation, said an official of the Ministry of Health, adding that India was determined to end the AIDS epidemic as a threat to public health. here 2030, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Indian government has recently reaffirmed this commitment to the UN. The official added: "To achieve this goal, we should adopt accelerated targets, including the 90-90-90 targets, by 2020. However, this requires commitment and sustained actions to deal with the problem. The magnitude of the challenges ahead. "
Targets 90-90-90 include targets such that 90% of all people living with HIV (PLHIV) will know their HIV status, 90% of all PLHIV will receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 90% of all people under ARV suppression of viral load to minimize HIV transmission.
The Indian government must also give priority attention to the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis by 2020.
Recently, Gilead Sciences announced that it would donate Truvada for PrEP (emtricitabine 200 mg tablets and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 30 mg tablets) to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help HIV prevention and the epidemic.
While this drug donation is among the largest ever in the United States and is part of Gilead's broader ongoing initiatives to ensure that everyone who can benefit from PrEP can access it, Health said that India's generics producers held a strong position in the country. the global supply chain.
The official added that the government would also continue its National AIDS Program IV (NACP-IV) beyond its twelfth five-year plan for a period of three years from April 2017 to March 2020.
The program will ensure that more than 99% of the population will be protected from HIV; more than 7 million key people will be covered each year through a comprehensive HIV prevention program; and about 150 million vulnerable people (including pregnant women) will be tested for HIV within three years of the project.
The main objectives of NACP IV were the 50% reduction of new infections and the provision of comprehensive care and support to all people living with HIV / AIDS.
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