HIV in India - The Challenges Ahead

Robert  Steinbrook, M.D.

 Volume 356:1197-1201; March 22, 2007 ; Number 12

“The largest AIDS care center in India is the Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, Tambaram Sanatorium, Chennai. Established in 1928 as a 12-bed private tuberculosis sanatorium, it now has extensive outpatient and laboratory facilities as well as 32 inpatient wards, with a total of 776 beds; 8 of the wards are devoted to patients with HIV. Between April 2004 and February 2007, more than 5000 patients began antiretroviral therapy at the hospital. "Every other government and private hospital would just throw the patient out as soon as they found they were HIV-positive," says Soumya Swaminathan, deputy director of the Tuberculosis Research Center in Chennai. "At Tambaram, anyone could walk in at any time. They would be taken care of."