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Finally plans have to be made to treat the 111,000 currently suffering from AIDS plus the AIDS cases that will soon accumulate and exhaust the Indian medical system.
In India, public health care system is free and accessible to all. However, the hospitals are severely overcrowded and understaffed. Twenty four percent of all Indians hospitalized fall below the poverty line because they are hospitalized. India has about 100 beds per 100,000 population against the WHO norms of 300 beds per 100,000. (IIMA 5) There are 60 physicians per 100,000 population (as compared with 230 in Britain and 256 in the United States) In short, three main problems plague the Indian health care system: accessibility, efficiency, and quality of the health delivery system. In a recent study done, an estimated investment 100 – 140 crore rupees (approximately 1 billion U.S. dollars) is required over the next ten years to provide a sufficient amount of secondary beds, tertiary beds, more medical colleges, nursing schools, and other health professionals. An example that can be a model to all high prevalence states is the government hospital of Thorace Medicine, Tamboram Sanatorium, Chennai, the largest AIDS care center in India. The hospital with 776 bed and 8 wards devoted to patients with HIV began as an antiretroviral at the hospital for more than 5,000 patients. Such hospitals should be created in states that have especially high rates of AIDS cases. Whereas distribution of HAART should be a priority in high HIV prevalence states. |
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