Though the Government has provided medicines for about 96,000 patients as against 47,000 under treatment with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), these are only the basic first line of medication.

Under the Government’s policy the new improved drugs are not available in Government hospitals and patients who have developed resistance to the first line of treatment have to buy them on their own. “Our main effort is to provide the basic treatment for millions of HIV positive people. The second line of treatment is very expensive and we cannot afford to provide it free at this point,’’ said Sujatha Rao, director-general NACO.

Before changing the treatment protocol, NACO is planning a drug resistance study in four centres. The study to be conducted by NARI (PUNE), Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai, NICD Kolkata and AIIMS in Delhi is likely to be started early next year.