NGO experiments with Prep to check HIV

MYSURU: Ashodaya Samithi, an organisation of sex workers in Mysuru district, has taken up a pilot project to check HIV from the root. The samithi has launched pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme to administer tablets to newcomers in the realm in Mysuru and Mandya districts to prevent them from contracting HIV. It is one among the only two such organisations selected for PrEP experiment in the country; Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) at Sonagach in Kolkata, West Bengal district, is the another organisation.

The project supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is permitted by NACO, University of Manitoba, Canada,  BMGF and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Robert Lorway, professor in Medicines and Anthropology, University of Manitoba, told Express  that it is intended at ensuring early medical intervention to check the spread of HIV. While field trials were conducted in North America and some African countries in controlled conditions, it was decided to experiment on a larger group later. It’s a 16-month project launched in March 2016 and results are yet to be obtained. Unlike clinical trials which were conducted on homosexuals among others, it is conducted on female sex workers in India.

Prathima, director of finance, Ashodaya Samithi, said according to the project, a tablet per day is given to each of the selected 647 sex workers in Mysuru and Mandya districts. While a majority of the targeted workers are from Mysuru, 150 belong to Mandya. To ensure that nobody misses their dose of tablet, seniors are tasked with summoning them at particular spots in the day and administer tablets to them. In case of any discontinuation, the antibodies that fight the spread of HIV may come down gradually. 

Following the risks undertaken by the community, with most of them vulnerable to HIV-AIDS, it has been involved in checking the rate of  infection by creating awareness about the significance of health. To ensure that sex workers infected by dreaded disease avail treatment at Anti-retro Viral  Therapy (ART) centres, the samithi has posted health care navigators at two government hospitals in the city. The navigators are tasked with taking such HIV-infected sex workers to hospitals for treatment. In all, 12 such navigators are deployed with a majority of them taking care of the job in Mysuru district.All these best practices of the samithi has found a mention in UNAIDS book released during the the first week of December in Geneva.

Ever since the organisation was founded in 2000, it has been mobilising the community of sex workers and transgenders. It was followed by setting up of a dedicated academy, a first of its kind in India also recognised by UNAIDS for Asia Pacific region.All these best practices have been described in detail in the chapter titled ‘Ray of Hope’ published in a book  released by UNAIDS during the first week of December in Geneva.