Ensuring Better Quality Of Life

There is serious concern in the southern states in India over under reporting numbers of people injecting drugs and infected with HIV. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been delivering services for drug injectors for many years now, and injecting epidemics have been reported more recently in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Civil Society and Community Organizations stated their concern over the numbers of deaths being reported and the lack of facilities for care and support currently available through national and state administered services.

The current services for HIV management through needle syringe exchange programs and medication for replacing illicit or grey market opiates have been largely successful but simply not enough. The challenge of co-morbidities including the presence of TB and Hepatitis C along with HIV require wider access in health systems including hospitals.

There is also a huge demand for medically assisted detoxification and rehabilitation services and a scale up of the fledging Opioid Substitution Treatment Programs in the region. The launch of the “South Indian Harm Reduction Network” in Chennai heralds a welcome initiative for people dependent on drugs, especially those living with HIV and AIDS in the Southern States. The South Indian Harm Reduction Network will aspire to bring ownership of treatment to affected communities and to mainstream services that include wider health care, psycho-social support, reintegration related to employment, family support and legal aid. It will  register state level networks that will work closely with state governments and affected communities, strengthen services for people injecting drugs under States AIDS Control Societies and would help for an  improved quality of life for drug dependent people.

The resolve of key stakeholders managing HIV and AIDS services for people injecting drugs to widen the scope of services to draw together agendas such as homelessness and drug treatment was tabled at a meeting held under the auspices of the Indian Harm Reduction, and supported by Sharan. The challenge will be to keep people secure in access to various types of treatment. Counseling is the glue that will hold the populations adherent to services, as optimism is required to counter the despair felt by the severe stigma and discrimination experienced at mainstream health services, and the abuse on the streets by ill informed law enforcers.