A. Given the poor quality of service in the public sector, the HIV/AIDS affected should be switching to private initiatives that supply anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) at a low cost.
B. The government has been supplying free drugs since 2004, and 35,000 have benefited up to now-though the size of the affected population is 150 times this number.
C. The recent initiatives of networks and companies like AIDS Care Network, Emcure, Reliance-Cipla-CII, would lead to availability of much needed drugs to a large number of affected people.
D. But how ironic it is that we should face a perennial shortage of drugs when India is one of the world’s largest suppliers of generic drugs to the developing world.