HIV, AIDS patients reel under drug shortage
Patients forced to buy medication from private medical stores at exorbitant rates as ART centre at Sassoon is facing a shortage
The nodal Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre on the Sassoon General Hospital premises, providing comprehensive services to persons suffering from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), is facing a shortage of antibiotic drugs. Patients who seek regular follow-up treatment and medication allege that they are provided just ten to 14 days of medication instead of a month’s quota, forcing them to make rounds of the centre. They are told to purchase the drug from outside medical stores, but the drug is not sold in private medicals.
Pravin (name changed), 29, is HIV positive. He lives in Somwar Peth and visits the ART centre for antibiotic drug medicine provided free of cost. The medication helps patients ward off bacterial disease as it prevents the growth of the virus in the body, making patient able to live with the disease. As Pravin had run out of the tablet stock, he requested the store keeper at the ART centre, but he was referred at an outside medical store. “As I asked for the tablet, the staff told me that the tablet was not available here, and told me to purchase it from outside a medical store in front of the hospital, which shocked me,” said Pravin. At the private medical store, the tablet was available for Rs 600. “I had no money so I left without purchasing the tablets and have to adjust with two days tablets,” he said. After a week Pravin went to the ART centre and got the tablets but only for 15 days instead of a month.
There are four nodal ART centres in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. They are in Sassoon General Hospital, Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Yashawantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCM) in Pimpri and National
(NARI) on Senapati Bapat Road. Apart from this, there are several link centres in corporation hospitals of the city. The oldest nodal centre is in Sassoon Hospital, that is on the ground floor of Infosys building. It is visited by 200 to 300 HIV / AIDS patients every day for availing the medicine tablets. Tablets are being given to AIDS patients when their CD4 count (number of cells in a cubic millimetre of blood) reaches around 250 less than the normal range of 400 to 1600. The monthly based tablets help patients fight the infections as they are more vulnerable to other common infections such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, jaundice fever, diarrhea, allergy etc. These are commonly found in HIV patients due to a weakening immune system.
Johnson Vasant Kolhapure, president of Bahujan Sasmaj Party, Sassoon Hospital sector decried the shortage of the drug and demanded appropriate supply of tablets. “The shortage of tablets has been here for more than four months, which is leading hundreds of patients to purchase medication from outside medical stores, spending thousands of rupees. The medicine falls under the category of ‘schedule H drug’ which is not supposed to be sold in private medical stores, Why it is being sold in private stores?” he said.
A doctor from the ART centre of Sassoon Hospital confirmed that there was a shortage of the drug, which was resolved now .
A D Sonavane, assistant director of Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) under which the ART centre functions, refuted the charges of shortage of tablets, saying that it was seven months ago due to technical reasons. “There is no shortage of the tablets right now in Pune. There are 22 types of tablets provided to HIV patients. There is petition filed in court seven months ago when the shortage had occurred. But there is no shortage now,” he said.
dnyaneshwar.bhonde@goldensparrow.com
Originally published on The Golden Sparrow
