IT’s 5.30 pm. Manikandan, 32, sits inside the dirty, open ward, smears holy ash on his forehead and listens to his mother chanting the ‘Vishnu Sahasranamam’. At the Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine, popularly known as the Tambaram Sanatorium, his neighbour Moncy, clenches his Bible. They have only one desire: to live longer.Attracted by the $1 million grant the hospital received from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, USA, scores of other HIV/AIDS patients from all over the south flock to the sanatorium, expecting cheap Siddha treatment . The flow of funds, paradoxically, has dampened their hopes of cheap treatment.‘‘The hospital authorities have forced themselves to shift focus from care to documentation of patient profiles,’’ says former sanatorium superintendent Dr C N Deivanayagam. The reason: CDC funds can only be spent on upgrading information systems, renovating labs and providing doctors and paramedical staff the latest updates on HIV ‘‘We cannot use the money for any other purpose,’’ says sanatorium deputy superintendent Dr S Rajasekaran.Ironically, during the World AIDS Conference in Durban two years ago, the hospital had presented a scientific paper stating that the administration of three Siddha drugs in combination with allopathic drugs to contain opportunistic infections had improved the quality of life for the patients.Deivanayagam, an allopathic doctor, himself clinically research Siddha drugs for over five years from 1992. The results were encouraging: lesser viral load, more immunity. ‘‘We had planned to start the second phase of research, which would involve administering Siddha drugs exclusively on 50 patients, while 50 others were given allopathic drugs along with anti-retroviral therapy on 50 others. But it never took off,’’ he says.It is frustrating. ‘‘Because Siddha drugs are very cheap, we know it can make a difference to many people living with HIV/AIDS, but we need at least Rs 50 lakhs for research. We have no money,’’ says Rajasekaran.The 31 wards in the 776-bed hospital are shed-like structures crowded with TB and HIV/AIDS patients and their relatives. The in-patient list, as of November 12, had 996 names, including 284 HIV/AIDS patients. On an average, more than 1,000 new HIV/AIDS cases report to the hospital every month in the hope of cost-effective Siddha treatment.The Rs 2.5 crore and the Rs 30 lakh they get annually from the state government and the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, says a senior doctor, is barely enough for maintenance. Yet patients live with pigs, cats and dogs in the open wards, complains Sasikala, mother of a 12-year-old patient admitted in the hospital.That’s not all. Social workers say four in-patients, all reportedly suffering from depression, have committed suicide. ‘‘It took four lives, and public criticism for the hospital to think of appointing counsellors,’’ says Shyamala Ashok, a social worker. ‘‘Even now, there are hardly enough people to counsel people admitted to the hospital with HIV’’At Ground Zero, there’s American money all right. But hope, if anything, is scarce.
