New Delhi: India has launched a third-line drug therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS and extended free anti-retro-viral therapy (ART) to majority of them by revising the eligibility norm. For receiving the aforesaid treatment, the minimum CD4-count limit should have been reduced from 500 to 350. The count is a measure of the viral load.

The third-line therapy is known as salvage or rescue therapy and prescribed for people who have limited drug options left — after the failure of at least two drug administrations and with evidence of HIV resistance to at least one drug. The highly expensive therapy is decided to provide free to the respective patients. These offers are in association with the launch of the National AIDS Control Program Phase IV (2012-2017).

On this occasion, the Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the third-line therapy would increase longevity while the quality of patient’s life gets improved.