Prevention is especially important to control the spread of infectious diseases, be it COVID-19, tuberculosis, or HIV/AIDS. Unless we break the chain of transmission, we won’t be able to prevent new infections from happening and we won’t be able to #endTB or #endAIDS by 2030.
This message was clearly delivered during the 13th National Congress of the AIDS Society of India (ASICON) which just concluded with the theme of “Confronting the Pandemic with Expertise, Accuracy and Perseverance.”
According to Dr. Dilip Mathai, Dean and Professor of Medicine at Apollo Institute of Health Sciences and Research, Hyderabad, “We have preventive measures, including vaccines, but we are failing to do the initial prevention to break the chain of transmission of many infectious diseases. We have not even deployed 19 types. Vaccines are now available against a wide range of diseases in the elderly. Unless we increase health care spending, we will not be able to improve people’s health.”
In the case of HIV/AIDS, 1.5 million people globally will be newly infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by 2020. 100,000 of these infections occur in Southeast Asia, in India alone has 69220 people (69%).
With an estimated 2.35 million people infected with the virus, India bears the second highest burden of HIV in the world (after South Africa) and the highest burden of disease in Southeast Asia.
Although India’s National AIDS Control Program has made tremendous progress in reducing AIDS deaths by 66% and reducing new infections by 37% annually compared to 2010, we are still struggling. lagging behind in achieving the UNAIDS global 90-90- 90 target for 2020. With 190 new HIV infections occurring every day (or 8 new infections occurring every hour) in India, we doesn’t seem to be doing very well at stopping the spread of the virus.
Preventive health care is a neglected aspect of our health system, compared to tertiary health care. Dr Ishwar Gilada, President of the AIDS Society of India (ASI) and member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society (IAS), laments that there is a lot of budget for tertiary care, but very little budget for primary care. the media at the 13th ASICON.
He explained that the first phase of the Indian government’s national AIDS program, launched in 1992 for HIV/AIDS prevention and control in India, focused on awareness and education. In the second phase, the program expanded its scope and added blood safety and targeted interventions to its strategy. The third phase focuses on treatment with the introduction of free antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2004.
This was followed by testing and treatment policy and the introduction of viral load testing, as well as reducing stigma through the 2017 HIV/AIDS Act, which prohibits discrimination or unfair treatment of people living with HIV. . However, over the past decade or so, the pace of awareness campaigns has slowed and prevention activities have been pushed back.
“Children who were about 10 years old between 2005 and 2010 are now adults, but unlike children before, they have never seen or heard of any major HIV prevention campaigns. These adolescents are risk-takers that currently most new infections are in the 18-30 age group. Our prevention campaigns are poor, and targeted interventions are almost useless. Neutralization and HIV control programs for sex workers are not working, more so because of the changing face of prostitution and the emergence of dating apps. use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), but they don’t know that it can only prevent HIV and not other STIs, so we’re also seeing acne breakouts. herpes, venereal warts and syphilis”, Dr. Gilada said.
Gilada rightly points out that when a disease has a high mortality rate, it attracts more attention. As soon as we started fixing the problem, everyone’s efforts to maintain control of it dwindled. This has also happened with HIV/AIDS. When HIV/AIDS is like a death sentence, people are ready to take every precaution and do their best to prevent it.
However, thanks to the tireless efforts of scientists and researchers, today people living with HIV who receive treatment can lead near-normal lives, reducing their viral load to undetectable levels for many years. within 3 months of treatment and are not contagious, and they can have an HIV-negative baby. Since it is no longer a dreaded disease, it seems to have led to a “can’t-don’t care” attitude, with the focus shifting from prevention to treatment.
And as UNAIDS’ Dr. Marjolein Jacobs said, although we’ve worked a lot in diagnosing, treating and caring for people living with HIV and making good progress in these areas, we’ve made great progress. I need to take prevention more seriously if we are to continue with our goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030.
While scientists hire newer territories to improve diagnosis and treatment of disease, we cannot afford to slack off on implementing primary prevention interventions, including safe sex practices and vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases, to protect human health.
Shobha Shukla – CNS (Citizen News Service)
Source: Eurekalert
