Surviving AIDS
the survival rate of hiv -infected people in India has increased, courtesy a 20-fold drop in the price of the anti-retroviral drugs in the country. This is suggested by a recent study by Y R Gaitonde of Centre for aids Research and Education (yrg care), a Chennai-based non-governmental organisation, and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. The study was published in the November 2005 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, a medical journal.
Researchers led by Nagalingeswaran Kumarasamy, chief medical officer, yrg care, Chennai, found that in 1996 only 13 per cent of the Indian hiv patients who re-qualified for anti-retroviral therapy (art) could afford the treatment, due to the high costs. But in 2000, this number increased to 22 per cent, further rising to 44 per cent in 2003. "The number of individuals seeking treatment for hiv infection had increased as the cost of the drug art decreased 20-fold after the introduction of generic art in India in 2000,' say the researchers. They claimed introducing generic art had led to a massive fall in the treatment cost
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