The government will be offering free second line treatment drugs to those HIV patients who are below the poverty line at two hospitals in the country. The Hospitals are Tambararan Hospital in Chennai and JJ Hospital in Mumbai. The information was given by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr A Ramadoss at a programme on The World AIDS day here in New Delhi.

According to Dr Ramadoss there are an estimated 25 lakh people living with HIV in India and a majority of them are below the poverty line. They could not afford IInd line medicines because of the high price of these medicines. Both the centres would ease the problem of HIV affected poor people as the centres would provide the requisite IInd line medicine on no cost to them, said the Minister.

The minister, emphasizing the government's commitment towards people, living with HIV, said, "Our commitment to reach one lakh persons on anti-retroviral therapy has been achieved. We are now getting ready to provide second-line treatment to those who have may have developed resistance to first-line drugs." He disclosed that as the authority gains confidence in providing good quality care, access to second line treatment would be expanded.

Speaking at the programme, Dr.Ramadoss appreciated the work done by The National AIDS Control Organization which had undertaken specific actions to control and reverse the epidemic and its efforts had yielded significant results as was evident by declining HIV prevalence rates.