Second line HIV drugs available in Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad

AIDS patients in Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad won’t have to travel all the way to Mumbai’s J J Hospital as second line drugs for HIV will be made available in the cities soon.

At present, B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital’s anti-retroviral treatment (ART) centres have a total of 6,423 patients. Of these, approximately 200 patients require second line drugs and 55 people shortlisted for the treatment have to go to Mumbai for the drugs, ART centre officials at Sassoon Hospital said.

However, Dr Dilip Deshmukh, additional director of Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS), said they are planning to set up facilities at Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur for providing second line drugs.

In the state, a total of 88,420 HIV-infected people are taking ART from 52 centres. MSACS — which implements an HIV prevention care, support and treatment programme in the state — is implementing the third phase of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP III), which calls for a decentralisation and subsequent strengthening of services at the district level.