HIV patients protest against shortage of medicines; says if medicines are not available, the strike will go on

HIV patients protest against the shortage of life-saving drugs outside the National AIDS Control Organisation’s office in Delhi. During the protest, a patient said that HIV medicines were out of stock. The patient said that if there are no medicines then how will India become HIV free nation by 2030? HIV patients have started an indefinite protest from July 21.

One of the protesting patients told that there is a shortage of life-saving drugs in Delhi and its adjoining states for the last five months. We also wrote to the state authority about the shortage of medicines but no avail. Eventually, we had to perform a protest. Life-saving drugs are given to HIV patients to lead a normal and healthy life.

Meanwhile, Harishankar Singh of the Delhi Network of Positive People said that our protest will continue till the medicines are not made available. The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) should take concrete steps to overcome the shortage of medicines. In many states, the members of this organization are not even able to tell when the medicines will come. One patient said that he has been taking life-saving drugs since 2013.

However, officials said they have informed the patients regarding the availability of the crucial drugs. “They were informed about the position regarding drug availability and they were told to jointly work with state AIDS control societies and NACO for the availability of drugs at those few centers which were running short on supplies, temporarily,” sources said.