An awareness programme aimed at helping HIV pregnant women to save their babies from contracting the infection is set to die a sudden death. The programme, which had been running for decades, will be discontinued from today as National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has refused to grant funds for it to Maharashtra. Every other state in the country has, however, been granted its share of the fund.
Reshma Khan (name changed), the 27-year-old resident of Nerul gave birth to a child two months ago at JJ Hospital. But she can’t breastfeed her baby as the HIV virus in her blood might get transferred to the infant who has born without the infection.
Reshma was unaware of the infection until she became pregnant. However, ever since the virus was detected, she started taking treatment at the antiretroviral therapy (ART) centre. Due to continuous and sincere medication, her child has been born without being infected by HIV.
Reshma was lucky that a local NGO working for HIV patients assisted her with her medication and treatment throughout the nine months of her pregnancy. But from today, the NGOS will not be able to assist pregnant mothers as the awareness programme for HIV pregnant women under NACO will stop functioning in Maharashtra. The programme will only run at the government-run centres.
This is because the awareness programme was functioning under a global fund that has expired a couple of months ago. So, in order to run the programme, NACO had been providing funds from its own pockets to all the states in India except Maharashtra.
“Maharashtra is the only state that has not received any funds from NACO under the programme. When we requested the organisation, they said that the number of HIV infected pregnant women has declined in the state and so they declined granting us funds,” said Dr Srikala Acharya, director of Maharashtra AIDS Control Society (MSACS).
“Since it is important to continue with the programme, we have been approaching several agencies to help us with the fund. Currently, we are negotiating the amount of money required for the programme. But so far, we have not received any response from any agency,” she added.
It is compulsory for pregnant women to get tested for HIV to start antiretroviral therapy at the earliest in order to save the unborn child from being infected by the virus. If a pregnant women is identified as HIV positive, then she along with her newborn are supervised for 18 months. And this responsibility is given to NGOs associated with MSACS.
“The fund crunch has been going on for several months. For months, we did not receive any money but now due to shortage of funds, the government is shutting down awareness programmes. We have been given a notice that the awareness programme for pregnant women will be discontinued from December 1,” said Meena Maraschole, World Vision India, an NGO that helps in spreading awareness on HIV mothers and children in the city.
If pregnant women are found to be infected with the HIV virus, they are given ART treatment without even counting her CD4 (T-cells in the blood that help in fight with infection) blood count. “In other cases, we provide treatment if the CD4 count falls below 250/ml. But in pregnant women, we do not consider it to be essential to get the treatment at the earliest as timely treatment decreases the risk of transferring the infection to children by only 1 per cent,” said Dr Acharya.
Another NGO that has been working for this cause, Networking of People Living with HIV (NPLH+), has planned to approach the state to take steps and provide funds to continue with the programme in Maharashtra.
“To curb spreading of HIV, it is necessary to reduce the number of infants being born with the infection. We will approach the government and if it does not take any step, we will find others ways to continue with the programme,” said Mahendra Madhu, president of NPLH+, Nagpur.
