Press Release: President Clinton Announces Plan to Provide Training in AIDS Care and Treatment to Over 150,000 Doctors in India

Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative assists India's National AIDS Control Organisation as it scales up programs across the country.

Former President Bill Clinton announced today that his Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Indian Government?s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) will train 150,000 private sector doctors in India in HIV/AIDS care and treatment over the next year.

The Clinton Foundation, under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India, is assisting NACO in scaling up the government's national antiretroviral treatment program to approximately 188 centers across the country. The Clinton Foundation partnered with the Indian Government in September 2004, and the Physician Training Initiative is the latest in a series of ongoing joint programs between NACO and the Clinton Foundation. In addition to the training programs, the Clinton Foundation and NACO are collaborating on many aspects of the national care and treatment program, including upgrading the national laboratory systems, improving procurement mechanisms, developing a national monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system, and community mobilization efforts at the state and local levels.

During a two-day visit to New Delhi focusing on India's response to the AIDS epidemic, President Clinton launched the training program before an audience of private sector physicians. “The Government of India is moving aggressively to address the AIDS problem in a systematic and comprehensive manner,” President Clinton said. “In India, where an estimated 80% of health care services are provided by private sector hospitals and private physicians, it is imperative that they are given the tools needed to provide standardized high quality care and treatment to those who need it. I salute the Government for its leadership and look forward to our continued partnership as we expand our efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.”

Speaking in New Delhi, Dr. S.Y. Quraishi, Additional Secretary and Director General of NACO, said, “With a number of new initiatives and interventions now we are in a position to halt and reduce the spread of the virus. Our experience with bilateral and multilateral cooperation has been quite encouraging. We are particularly impressed with the support and initiatives of the Clinton Foundation in areas of capacity building and their receptivity, flexibility, and sensitivity to deal with the HIV/AIDS issues in India.”

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is also supporting the Physician Training Initiative. DFID, through its Sexual Health Resource Center (SHRC) is providing technical expertise in curriculum development as well as financial support for the project.

The Head of DFID in India, Susanna Moorehead, welcomed the announcement. “Partnerships are key to tackle the AIDS epidemic. No one agency – public or private – can reach enough people. Private doctors are an important part of this partnership. These are the people who have access to individuals who may have been exposed to the HIV virus and it is crucial that we work with them to ensure that the best care and treatment is given. The Department for International Development is funding the physician training initiative as part of our long-term commitment of $123 million which we are putting towards the fight against HIV-AIDS in India.”

The Physician Training Initiative has recently been approved and sanctioned by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Indian Medical Association (IMA). MCI will consider the training as a Continuing Medical Education Programme (CME) and certificates will be presented to all participants upon successful completion of the program. This is the first time a CME programme on HIV/AIDS has been approved by the MCI.

The trainings will be held across India and will provide physicians with an updated training in local HIV/AIDS epidemiology; HIV/AIDS virology, modes of transmission, and disease progression; patient evaluation methods; case management of opportunistic infections; national ARV guidelines; mother to child transmission (MTCT); post exposure prophylaxis; and treatment guidelines.

The Physician Training Initiative will be implemented in three phases at the national, district, and regional levels and will be carried around through “Training of Trainer” Programs including 3,000 District Level Trainings to be carried out by over 500 trained doctors.

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