BENGALURU:The Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society has decided to facilitate home delivery of anti-retroviral therapy medicines to HIV patients living in a remote colony off Magadi Road, every week starting Wednesday. This comes after The New Indian Express published a report on September 5 ('People with HIV made to live in middle of nowhere') that the HIV patients living in the colony were travelling at least 40 km each day to get their refill of the medicines.
District AIDS Prevention Control Unit officer, Bengaluru Urban, Asha said, "We will first assess the requirement of each patient and send the medicines from any one of the 17 nodal ART Kendras. For example, with one tablet a day, patients may require 30 tablets per month. Based on the number of patients and their requirement, we will send the medicines."
At least 38 families live in the colony where the husband and wife or at least one person of a family is HIV-positive.
For people living with HIV, residing in the vicinity of a public health institution makes it easier to access the life-saving anti-retroviral therapy and reduces the chances of failure to show up for follow-up.
But the government hospital in this colony's vicinity does not stock the anti-retroviral therapy drugs which forces them to come all the way to the city despite having no bus connectivity.