For over a week now, a group of HIV patients has been protesting outside the Delhi office of the National Aids Control Organization. They allege that HIV patients across the country have been struggling to find life-saving antiretroviral drugs – for six months in some cities – but the government, specifically NACO, seems least bothered to address the shortage. NACO is a central government agency which, among other services, provides free antiretroviral drugs to HIV patients through a network of ART Centres. And even as many ART Centres are running short of these life-saving drugs, the protesters say, they are available freely in the market.
