Bansi Lal Yadav, Dy. Minister of Health

     I echo the positions of Shrimati Bose and Madhur.  If we are to promote health in India, we need a safe and secure supply of medications, that are affordable and of good quality.  Indian manufactured drugs are top-quality.  When we face a health problem, we can go to private Indian firms, and if they can't do anything, then we can insist that the government-controlled firms act.  India has to act in its own self-interest.  We cannot afford to lose either a domestic pharmaceutical industry or control over that industry.  

   We have an HIV/AIDS problem.  For years we thought this was a "gay white man's disease," only to find out that the variant we are getting is HIV 1E--heterosexually transmitted.  What the US has is dominantly HIV 1B (anally transmitted).   That's why the Western HIV test kits didn't work here.  Our own researchers developed a cheaper test kit that reliably diagnoses the strains of HIV that India has.  

African states have multiple types of HIV and  we ought to send a contingent of doctors,  nurses, and lab technicians to African countries to work in their AIDS programs. We have large numbers of former Indians who settled in Africa,; we can minister to them specifically as well as to the general population.  

India should send 200, and ask the Global Trust Fund to cover their salaries.  Let's make it 80 doctors, 80 nurses, and 40 lab technicians.  Some of these should ask to be in cities, others in small towns, some in rural clinics.  These should be promised high positions in the AIDS section of our  Ministry.  

We should insist that our people get copies of records, so that when they return, we can have conferences on what works and what doesn't.  That will help us cope with HIV/AIDS here.   Nigeria is buying drugs from CIPLA so we should definitely send some staff there.   And we should send some to South Africa--we have a large group of Indians there who may need our support.