Widespread awareness campaigns; which were first initiated by Dr. Ishwar Gilada’s NGO – the Peoples’ Health Organisation (India) – PHO in 1985, that later became a mass movement and successful use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has helped India reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS prevalence steadily over the past two decades. India’s new infections were estimated to be at 86,000 in 2015, showing a marked decline by 66 per cent as compared to the year 2000. According to a report by UNAIDS, HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs is estimated to be 28 times higher than the rest of the adult population.
According to WHO, IDU accounts for approximately 10% of HIV infections globally. The cause for this high prevalence is the unsafe practice of needle sharing among drug users which puts them at high risk of infections. Notably, sharing a syringe or needle with an HIV infected person exposes you to the transmission not only HIV, but Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and several other viral and bacterial diseases. Rates of co-infections of HIV and HCV are alarmingly high among IDUs, further complicating health matters for them,” says Dr Ishwar Gilada, India’s first medical doctor who had raised alarm against HIV/AIDS in 1985 and president of AIDS Society of India (ASI) – a national association of physician and researchers in HIV care, established India’s first ASI Clinic in 1986.
“WHO recommends harm reduction interventions for IDUs in the form of distribution of clean syringes and needles. However, people who inject drugs often fail to have access to these services as they fear abuse and punitive actions as per the current laws in force. Criminalization of drug use often makes us look at drug users as criminals rather than victims of addiction — another factor responsible for limited success in reaching out to them,” says Dr. Gilada, , who is country’s foremost HIV physician and championing for increasing access to HIV care globally.
However, in recent years, prevalence of HIV among IDUs has found to have increased in other parts of the country like Punjab, Haryana and including cities like Mumbai and Chennai. All this while, rates of sexual transmission of HIV have continued to decline, thanks to increasing awareness about safe sex practices and our responsible youth. We need to take into account what we did right in the case of sex workers and MSM populations and what is lacking in our efforts for reducing transmissions among IDUs,” says Dr. Ishwar Gilada.
