India accounts for 38 per cent of all new HIV infections in the Asia—Pacific region, making it 3rd largest home of HIV-positive people.
Together India and Africa constitute more than 50 per cent of the world’s AIDS affected population.
Fortunately, this gloomy state of affairs will soon turn sunny. India has committed to intensify its present efforts with Africa so as to nip the pandemic in the bud by 2030.
Africa is the biggest beneficiary of Indian generic drugs for combating AIDS under TRIPS. It is heartening to know that the Indian government has approved a scheme of USD 300 million to build and strengthen a regulatory framework to make pharmaceuticals “accessible and affordable”, without compromising with the quality.
Commendably, India has already undertaken a “comprehensive” survey of samples to check and detect sub-standard and spurious drugs in the market. The results will be available by the end of this year. India wants to scale up its role from being a benefactor to a partner in the initiatives undertaken in the African continent in this regard. Speaking at a high-level event ‘Ensuring access to life-saving medicines to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030’ on the sidelines of the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, Indian Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri. J. P. Nadda voiced India’s support to establish joint ventures in Africa to promote local pharma manufacturing by building technical and human capacities.
The ongoing efforts have already started bearing fruit. In India, there is an overall reduction of 57 per cent in new HIV infections (among adult population) in the past decade and the prevalence rate has seen a downward trend too.
The news has reinvigorated every governmental and voluntary effort working tirelessly to bring relief to the HIV+ people and ultimately end the menace.
Such exemplary mutual-cooperation and learning from each others’ experiences will go a long way in expediting the desired results. The success stories of South Africa in making Antiretroviral (ART) medicines available to its people and its Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) Programme are initiatives that India and other African nations can emulate.
