Anti-AIDS medicine project likely to take off at Sonagachi

Asia's largest red light zone, Sonagachi is likely to be the first among such areas in the country to roll out an experimental project under which sex-workers will be administered medicine to prevent HIV infection.
Under the project "Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis" (PrEP), regular medicine would be given to an HIV-negative sex worker engaged in sex with an HIV-positive person, a senior official of an NGO working for the welfare of sex-workers said.
The medicine will prevent a sex-worker from getting infected by HIV virus, principal of Sonagachi Research and Training Institute (SRTI), the NGO, Samarjit Jana told PTI.
The project, to be financed by the Melinda Gates Foundation, has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Health and is waiting for a nod from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

"We have submitted the report to the Union Health Ministry, which has forwarded it to the NACO. We are waiting for a nod from the NACO within the next few months," Jana said.
The SRTI is an arm of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a forum of 1,30,000 sex-workers in West Bengal.
Jana said that use of condoms and taking PrEP medicine everyday will offer double protection against HIV infection.
"We all know that use of condoms during sex has brought down HIV prevalence, but often customers do not use condoms. In such cases and in cases of defective condoms, the virus can attack a person. This can be prevented by regular intake of such a medicine," he explained.