An acute shortage of a vital anti-HIV drug — Nevirapine 200 mg — has hit patients across the State in the last one month. This is among the crucial drugs that prevent multiplication of the virus and reduce their presence in the blood.
Most of the 61 anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres have reported limited stocks of the drug all through last week, forcing the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) to write to the centres to procure the drug locally from WHO-approved pharma companies.
Nearly 90 per cent of the 1.09 lakh people who are on ART in the State are on a Nevirapine-based regimen.
Some patients that The Hindu spoke to said they were forced to return without the medicine or with just a few tablets from the ART centres because of the shortage.
“I was lucky to get the tablets for a week at an ART centre on the outskirts of the city. A friend of mine who is taking treatment in Bellary was sent back without any medicine as there was no stock,” said a patient.
Sources at the Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres said that as there was limited stock of this drug, they were forced to ration the supply to patients for the last one month.
Most HIV-positive people have a problem visiting the ART centres more than once a month. For example, lorry drivers whose work requires frequent travelling may even drop out and stop medication. “This will lead to drug resistance and there is also a risk of the virus spreading,” said an HIV activist.
B.V. Karur, in-charge project director of KSAPS, said supply will become normal by mid-August. “The shortage is across the country because of some issues in the tendering process by the Union Department of AIDS Control (DAC),” he said.
He said the State AIDS Prevention Societies could not procure medicines directly as DAC supplies them to States. “DAC had written to us 15 days ago to ask patients to buy the medicines on their own and get the bill reimbursed. But this is not possible because most patients cannot afford to buy,” Dr Karur said.
