India calls for expanding antiretroviral therapy coverage to combat HIV/AIDS

India, an important player in the global fight against AIDS, has called for focusing on efforts to invigorate research for improving diagnosis and developing vaccine and new treatments to alleviate the need for lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART).

First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Paulomi Tripathi said India is building on lessons learnt of past decades to tackle the last mile' challenges, with focus on reduction in new infection, elimination of mother to child transmission and elimination of stigma and discrimination by 2020.

"Remarkable progress has been made in fight against HIV/ AIDS epidemic. However, significant challenges remain in our way towards eliminating HIV/ AIDS as a public health threat by 2030," Tripathi said Monday at a General Assembly session on 'Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and The Political Declarations on HIV/AIDS'.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry supplies almost two-thirds of the antiretroviral drugs used globally, helping scale up access to treatment across developing countries and significantly contributing in the international fight against AIDS.

She said while significant advances have been made in understanding, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS globally, "it is time to focus on future challenges and invigorate research in key areas including better diagnosis to identify maximum number of HIV-infected persons and expanding ART coverage, developing vaccine and new treatments to alleviate the need for lifelong ART and finally, preventing new cases of HIV infection."