Health workers say India should join UNITAID

Healthcare NGOs, physicians and networks of people with HIV/AIDS have sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to speedily ensure that India joins UNITAID, an international drug purchase facility. They say that in the next few years there will be huge fund shortages to buy essential medicines in countries like India. Malaria, tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS are illnesses for which, experts say, a second line of medicines will soon be needed.
The healthcare sector and positive people's networks are now asking India to join UNITAID, set up in September 2006 to generate money for medicines. India's National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) chief Sujata Rao was an observer at the initiative, which now has 30 members but India is yet to become one.
The fund's money is generated through an aviation-linked levy called solidarity tax. A part of the fund generated by each country goes to UNITAID. With this UNITAID does bulk purchase of drugs and gives it to needy countries.
Every flight ticket purchased automatically donates a dollar or two to UNITAID. In the past one year, over $300 million has been collected from nine member countries through this mechanism.
India has about 450 airports, 50 foreign airlines flying in, and 12 domestic airlines. Air traffic in India is projected to be to the tune of 90 million people by 2015. Today there are 50 million air travellers in India, annually. If each ticket can contribute Rs.100, "that gives the measure of the kind of money that can be generated to support the cause of second line medicine", Celina told IANS.
UNITAID members like Norway contribute through a kerosene tax while Britain, Spain and South Africa do so through budgetary allocations.
France has been particularly pro-active with Air France making across the world contributions for every seat on its flights and the tax has not hindered its growth.
In 2001, India, along with other 189 member states, endorsed the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. As a signatory nation, India has also pledged "in particular to ensure their (AIDS patients') access to treatment" and India's universal access target date is 2012.
India has the third largest population of those living with HIV/AIDS and health officials say about 700,000 need Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART). In 2004, the government launched a free-ART programme, but in 2006 only about 40,000 had access to the medicine.
Along with free ART, TB is treated freely too and there is a demand in India's north eastern states that free treatment for Hepatitis C also be provided.
"NACO has begun the third phase of its control initiative in the country, but has no word on the second line of ART that will be required soon," Sundar Sunderaraman, a physician, told IANS.
03/10/07 Papri Sri Raman/indiainteracts.com

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, General Aviation Oct 2007