AIDS Society of India urges government to include HIV self-testing in policies

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) The AIDS Society of India (ASI) on Friday urged the government to include HIV self-testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine, taken to prevent from HIV, in its policies and programmes without much delay.

One in five people living with HIV in the country do not know their HIV status. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended HIV self-testing as part of HIV care cascade as it is an important approach to address gaps in HIV diagnoses, especially among key populations, in 2019.

“We need to ensure that 100 per cent of people living with HIV know their status so that they can receive full cascade of HIV care services and stay virally suppressed (undetectable viral load) – which is essential for them to live full and healthy lives – as well as to end AIDS,” said Dr Ishwar Gilada, President-Emeritus, AIDS Society of India (ASI).

According to government’s fifth edition of National AIDS Control Organisation’s (NACO) ‘Sankalak report 2023’, 79 per cent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) knew their status, 86 per cent of them were on antiretroviral therapy and 93 per cent of them had viral suppression.

The ASI said that this translates into 63 per cent of total PLHIV in India being virally suppressed in 2023 against the target of getting 86 per cent of them virally suppressed by 2025.

“India’s role in the global prevention of HIV-related deaths is unmatched and laudable. However, almost 92 per cent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and persons at risk of contracting HIV globally are consuming ‘made-in-India’ anti-retrovirals (ARVs),” claimed Dr Gilada.

Recent success story of twice yearly shots of Lenacapavir preventing HIV in over 96 per cent of at risk people and the Gilead granting royalty-free voluntary licenses to six generic pharma globally including four Indian, hit headlines.

“How India benefits from it remains in doldrums, as PrEP is not part of its National AIDS Control Programme (NACP). Although the HIV infections in India were declining with the wide-scale implementation of ART through 750 government-run ART centres, HIV cases started rising since 2020, with high burden in young people,” Gilada emphasised.

According to the ASI, HIV prevalence among migrants is 4 times, among truckers is 5 times, among inmates in central jails and female sex workers is 9 times, among men who have sex with men (MSM) is 16 times, among hijra/transgender people is 18 times and among people who use drugs is 43 times of the overall adult HIV prevalence.