In the year 2017, there were 2.1 million people suffering from HIV in India with over 80,000 new infections and 69,000 AIDS-related deaths. India stands third when it comes to the growing HIV epidemic. Today, on World AIDS Day, we will try to deduce why this epidemic is only getting worse with time.

Government-run centers are the sole source of free Antiretroviral drugs for over 750,000 people in India while others pay around Rs 3,000-25,000 for a month’s supply of antiretroviral drugs. But the situation today is that HIV drugs are becoming harder and harder to find- a problem that Hari Shankar, project director at Delhi Network of Positive People, an NGO for people with HIV/AIDS, faced on 11 July 2018. At the time of the 11 government-run Antiretroviral therapy centers in Delhi, one’s stock of HIV drugs had dried up. It is a problem that AIDS societies and treatment centers across India have been frequently facing.

“Since 2004, we’ve been monitoring the stock-out and the situation is not improving, sadly. We write two to three emails every week. Imagine the condition in the Northeast interiors. Even when NACO celebrated 10 years of fighting HIV in 2014, we protested because we still face shortages,” said Loon Gangte, Founder, Delhi Network of Positive People. Gangte, himself on HIV treatment since 2002, has written to NACO, the National AIDS Control Organisation many times but has gotten no reply. Anyone with HIV needs to take medication daily and in some cases, they need to stock up on two to three months of medication, which, as doctors say, is more important than food for many patients.

The Delhi High Court had asked the health ministry about the shortage of medicines at ART centres. But the next hearing is scheduled for March 2019 which is months away. What will happen to those who will be missing out on life-saving medication during it? According to Gangte, who has been going through this struggle for the past 10 years, the political parties are not willing to act, which is making the situation worse.

H/T: The Quint