In the third phase of its National Aids Control Programme, which starts next month, will look to provide 3 lakh patients with Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) free of cost and an additional 40,000 children between the ages of 0-15. ART, the multi-drug treatment, prolongs life and enhances its quality among people living with HIV/AIDS.

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has doubled its number of ART centres for Phase III from 56 centres to 120 centres across the country. In phase II only 65 thousand patients were treated. The treatment for children, which was started in December 2006, has so far medicated 3,700 children. The Clinton Foundation is providing the drugs.

“ We are looking to continue our focus on prevention but we want to introduce treatment in a big way. This will have many benefits,” says K Sujatha Rao, director NACO.

The primary benefits will be that infected individuals will be able to live normal lives with the help of the drugs. Secondly, the individual will reduce the chances of transmission as long as he follows the regular preventive measures along with taking the drugs. The average cost of treatment worked out to around Rs 8,000 per patient a year.

The new phase of the programme, which will cover the next five years, will also look to modernise the entire blood transfusion centre system. “We want to focus on volume access as well as the quality of blood. This will help not only in the transfusion of HIV but also other diseases such as Hepatitis B and Malaria. We want to be able to provide safe blood at reasonable prices and eliminate private trading and increase more donations,” said Rao.

For this the government will be looking to tie up with the Red Cross and is also looking towards a few German companies for financial aid.

The new phase will also shift its focus from states to districts as new hot spots have emerged in the last phase. There has also been a decline in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. NACO is also looking into providing fortified food for people living with HIV.1