While condemning authorities concerned for not taking up appropriate measures on acute shortage of Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs since April 2022, various organisations have jointly demanded to address the said problem at earliest.
The demand was made by Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), Social Awareness Service Organisation (SASO), Care Foundation and Kripa Foundation during the press conference at the office of SASO on Tuesday.
Addressing the conference, SASO president RK Tiken said that Antiretroviral Therapy (ART Centres) in Manipur has been facing acute shortage of ARV since April, 2022 due to running out of stock. They had complained about the said issues to authorities concerned several times. However, the problem is still not addressed, Tiken said.
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He further said that as ARV is the life-saving drugs for people living with HIV or AIDS, this has drastically affected the ART patients. The irresponsible nature of the authority has forced many ART patients to stop maintaining their adherence to ART treatment, he added.
Manipur is among the states with high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS. The present unavailability of ARV is affecting as many as 13,000 patients. The concerned should give prior information to all the concerned organisations at least one month ahead if there is going to face a drug shortage issue. This will eventually help to make arrangements or find out alternative means, he suggested.
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Tiken said that with an objective to eliminate HIV/AIDS, the United Nation resolved to increase HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression rates to be 95%--95%--95% by 2025. The current stance of the UN will be a ridiculous and embarrassing stance if the state government continues to neglect ARV drug shortage issues.
He appealed to the concerned authorities to take up immediate action to solve the said issues to prevent health consequences that have to be encountered by ART patients.
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