India has made good progress in prevention and treatment of HIV-AIDS.
But reducing stigma against the disease is vital to further the progress.
What are the worldwide trends in HIV treatment?
A report of “Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS” (UNAIDS) notes that rapid progress has been made regarding HIV in the past decade.
Notably, 75% of the people with HIV know their status and 21.7 million are taking treatment to delay the progress of the disease.
HIV incidences have reduced worldwide (particularly Africa) and anti-retroviral therapy is also being provided to many patients worldwide.
What is the status in India?
India too brought down the number of new cases and deaths by 27% and 56%, respectively, between 2010 and 2017, which is a significant achievement.
Notably, tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest killer of HIV patients and India is now capable of treating over 90% of the notified TB patients for HIV.
Social stigma surrounding AIDS-infected people in India is still high but this is said to be declining slowly with increased awareness campaigns.
Surveys indicate that the number of people unwilling to buy vegetables from a person with HIV came down from over 30% to 27.6%.
In spite of all this progress, with 2.1 million cases, India is among the largest burden countries in the world and there are critical gaps in its present strategy.
What are the gaps in India’s approach?
A country’s laws can legitimise stigma and incentivise the harassment of certain groups that are at the highest risk of HIV.
Notably, homosexuals, drugs addicts, and sex workers are particularly vulnerable to AIDS, and their fate becomes more dismal due to social stigma.
Indian laws that criminalise “homosexuality (sec.377) and several aspects of sex work (Immoral Traffic Act)”, only aggravate their woes.
Fear of prosecution under such laws prevents homosexual men, drug-users and sex workers from seeking HIV screening and treatment.
As a result, these groups lag behind average treatment rates, although their requirements are higher.
What is the way ahead?
If India is serious about tackling HIV, it must find ways to reach out vulnerable groups, even if changing the law outright is not an option.
Sensitising police personnel and educating female sex workers can greatly reduce arbitrary police raids and arrests.
Right to health is universal and India must ensure that nobody is left behind.
