CHANDIGARH: While preparations are on at the global level for the forthcoming UN review of progress in fighting AIDS, a number of social and human rights organisations have urged the Indian Government to hasten its endeavour to help children living with HIV/AIDS.

Through a joint statement, these organisations including the US-based Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative (SHAII), Association for India's Development, and the Global AIDS Alliance along with the People's Health Movement (PHM) from Bangalore, Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS) from Jaipur and Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) from Chandigarh have appealed to the Indian Government to issue guidelines for treating children living with AIDS and ensure prompt diagnosis and treatment.

The United Nations General Assembly at its meeting in New York from May 31 to June 2 this year is scheduled to review the promises made by various countries in 2001 while accepting the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. Governments are being called to report on progress they have made toward implementing these promises, including those made about children.

Describing the tardy speed at which the Indian Gvernment had proceeded so far in providing for the treatment as an "outrage", the joint statement quoted the Director of SHAII, Vineeta Gupta, as asking, "When will our Government finally speed up action to save lives? We need faster action for the whole community, adults as well as children."

Dr. Gupta called on the Indian Government to immediately issue paediatric treatment guidelines and "India should also take proactive measures to evaluate the effectiveness of currently available paediatric AIDS drugs and make them available in all NACO-operated treatment centres."

The Ministry of Health must also improve the infrastructure needed for paediatric treatment and provide special training for health care workers in treating the infected children, she suggested. The statement reminded that while at the World Economic Forum-2006, India was applauded for its economic development, little was being said about the death of more than 60,000 children due to HIV/AIDS in 2005. Estimates indicate that presently India has about 250,000 HIV-positive children under the age of 15, while only 4 per cent of them receive any treatment.

"More than two decades after the epidemic emerged, the Indian Government still has no formal plan or guidelines for providing life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to children. India has a large pharmaceutical industry, yet paediatric ARV medications are not available in Government-sponsored treatment centres," says Rajvinder Singh Bains of the PHRO. The statement pointed out that the few Indian children who are receiving treatment are administered broken pieces or leftover from the adult medications. It further disclosed that the WHO recently published a report which revealed that in the Sub Saharan Africa, AIDS treatment was being provided to 17 per cent of the people who need it. In contrast, only 7 per cent of HIV positive in India, including adults and children, received medical care.