‘India has no capacity at grassroot level to deliver policy dictates for HIV/AIDS’

Col Lalinderjit Singh Gill is president of Wockhardt-HMI HIV/AIDS Education and Research Foundation (WHARF), an NGO run jointly by Wockhardt Ltd and Harvard Medical International, USA, to impart training to healthcare providers and counsellors working with HIV/AIDS patients. WHARF has been active in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, high-risk areas of Dharavi and Mahim, with national, regional and global programmes involved in fighting the deadly disease. In an interview with Falaknaaz Syed, Col Gill discusses the various programmes of WHARF, the extent of HIV/AIDS menace and initiatives that the government needs to take.

Col Lalinderjit Singh Gill

Please brief me about WHARF’s activities.

WHARF has been set up with the primary objective of capacity building amongst primary care providers such as clinicians, paramedics and counsellors. It focuses on providing training to healthcare professionals and counsellors in India working in the area of HIV/AIDS. WHARF has three kinds of programme-Basic Training Programme, Advanced Clinical Training Programme and Community Based Programme. We have also been working with United Nations Development programme (UNDP) to provide online consultation to queries on AIDS from across the world.

Please elaborate on the three programmes.

All our training programmes are focussed on clinicians, where we try to fill up the knowledge gaps. The basic training programme consists of one full day of classroom training followed by four follow-up sessions. Here we train clinicians to counsel HIV/AIDS patients. We teach them basic epidemiology, treatment and home-based care after which they have to work on various projects and case studies. For instance, two years participants were asked to survey junior colleges across the city. We aim to target all colleges in the city on a sustainable basis.

From 1st Jan this year, we have two projects, ‘Access to care for People Living with HIV & AIDS (PLWHA)’ and other ‘Access to Care for Clinicians in Practice for HIV/AIDS’. We are also running a project in Jhabua, where WHARF’s faculty trains counsellors working with HIV/AIDS patients. This project is being extended right into central India.

A two-year research-based project to study the amount of knowledge that general practitioners have on treating HIV/AIDS patients revealed that GPs did not have adequate knowledge to counsel and treat HIV/AIDS patients. An emerging problem is that over a period of time, our knowledge of the disease becomes redundant as the virus is continuously mutating. In the last two and a half years, WHARF has trained over 5000 clinicians through the programme, after which they are ready to take HIV/AIDS practice.

Advanced training programme is a two-day programme for doctors with experience in treating HIV/AIDS patients. We go beyond the basics and speak to them about complications and intricacies associated with treatment e.g. antiretroviral therapy, various tests, and monitoring. The faculty are linked to major public hospitals.

Community Based Programme is a mass awareness programme, undertaken on a regular basis in slums and in various socially and economically backward areas. The focus is on police, bar girls and commercial sex workers. Here, we give the participants a brief account of the disease, show them video clips and clarify their doubts on HIV/AIDS and safe sex. The programme encourages women to freely talk about sex and sexuality and insist that their husband practice safe sex. At the end of the programme, Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) leaves a carton of condoms, which women participants pick up without hesitation. We are starting another programme where counselling will be provided at hospitals.

How do you assess government’s role in tackling the HIV/AIDS menace?

Government has the policy, but not the means to implement the policy. The root cause of the problem is that the country is in a state of denial. A few years back, there were 5.3 million AIDS patients that last year have reduced to 5.1 million. So far, 26,000 people have become positive. The authorities are not realising that they are the carriers of HIV. The second issue is that we need to have good policies to curb the discriminatory practices in hospitals against HIV/AIDS patients.

At the grassroots level, there is no capacity to deliver the dictates of the policy, so the end is denial. The previous government declared that 100,000 HIV patients would be given free treatment. But today, not even 1/10th has been achieved. There is a yawning gap between the infrastructure and delivery in healthcare.

Do you agree that global investment in development of preventive AIDS vaccines has been quite limited? If yes, then why in the face of the enormous impact of HIV/AIDS is the industry Public-Private-Partnership, not investing more on vaccines?

Yes, I agree that global investment in development of preventive AIDS vaccines has been limited, but the government can do little about it. Corporates, community and the government along with other segments should work together to address the issue.

Shouldn’t the government make it a crime for those who are HIV-positive to engage in sex without informing their partners?

No comments.

The recent suicides by HIV patients in JJ hospital point towards their distress and frustration. What measures do you suggest to control such suicides?

No comments.

falak@expresshealthcaremgmt.com