Manipur has enough stock for all ARV medicines: MACS

Imphal: There are 14,376 People Living with HIV (PLHIV) currently on ART in the state under the care of Manipur State AIDS Control Society as on January 31and out of this, 13,243 (92%) are on DTG based regimen.

Further out of this 13,243 (92%) who are on DTG based regimen 12,651 are on TLD (ARV medicines). Manipur State AIDS Control Society has enough TLD stock and other DTG based regimen. Currently, there are sufficient stock of AL adult in the state, Haobam Rosita, project director, Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) said in statement released on Saturday.

All the Anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs are centrally procured and supplied by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). However, since September 28, 2022 SACSs have been instructed to locally procure two ARV drugs – AL paediatrics and ZL paediatrics. And accordingly, we have procured the medicines. There is enough stock for all the ARV medicines now and currently there is no stock out situation of ARV medicines in Manipur, the release said.

In extreme conditions of total stock out situations of the medicines, individual PLHIVs can purchase the medicines for not more than one month and reimbursement can be claimed from Manipur State AIDS Control Society. There are occasions where such incidents have had happened and MACS has done reimbursements to PLHIVs after submitting proper bills and vouchers and other relevant documents.

The article titled “Short Supply of HIV drug creates acute crisis in NE” in The Times of India is completely misleading and not based on facts, the MACS project director said.

Such articles appear to be influenced by the mala fide vested interests who want to undermine the hard work done by Manipur SACS to ensure uninterrupted supply of ARV drugs to our people. Manipur State AIDS Control Society condemn such false and misconceived news and remain committed to work for the welfare of our PLHIV community and will ensure uninterrupted supply of ARV drugs always, she added.