PSI

With more than 1 billion people, India accounts for nearly 20% of the world’s population. Providing adequate health care in such a populous country poses a two-fold challenge:

• Overcoming barriers to access.
• Changing widespread negative attitudes that have lead to discrimination against those infected with communicable diseases, such HIV/AIDS.

Noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer are also on the rise in India. However communicable diseases, such as AIDS and malaria, kill more people each year. 1

In 1988, PSI began a small operation in India that has expanded into 22 states and union territories.
Current programs focus on:

• HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
• Reproductive health.
• Malaria prevention.
• Child survival.

1. 1. Source: World Health Organization Country Cooperation Strategy, 2006-2011.

Health Areas

Child Survival, Diarrheal Disease, HIV, Reproductive Health

Health Impact

PSI/India estimates that in 2010, its products and services helped avert:

• 48,443 HIV & TB DALYs1
• 347,214 Reproductive Health DALYs
• 19,175 Child Survival DALYs
1. 1. Source: The DALY (Disability-Adjusted Life Year) is a widely-used, credible metric that was first developed by the World Bank and is now routinely relied upon in the public health community.

Health Interventions

• HIV Risk Perception
• Sex Workers
• HIV Counseling and Testing
• Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission
• Male Condom
• Female Condom
• Oral Contraception
• Injectable Contraception
• Intrauterine Device (IUD)
• Emergency Contraception
• Multivitamins

Improving Health in India

HIV

It’s estimated that India has 5.6 million people living with HIV – more than any other country. 1 Success in controlling HIV in India can positively impact the overall world situation just because of the sheer numbers. 2

PSI/India is involved in several large-scale prevention projects aimed at curbing HIV incidence:

Avahan program

Sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this program promotes safer sexual practices in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu states. PSI/India also makes condoms accessible along national highways. The core of PSI/India’s contribution to this program is intensive communication, franchising and distribution in 100 locations where HIV prevalence and risky behavior is highest. PSI/India has reached more than 7.6 million clients of sex workers in these areas.

HIV/AIDS Workplace Intervention Program

Under USAID's Project Connect, PSI/India helps mobilize the private sector to support HIV/AIDS-related interventions. It also establishes prevention of parent-to-child transmission centers through public-private partnerships and advocacy with the insurance and pharmaceutical sectors.

Collieries Outreach Intervention for Limiting HIV/AIDS (COILA)

PSI/India implements this HIV prevention program for the coal mining community, in partnership with Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society. The project studies the norms of people in the coal mining districts of Jharkhand and then launches effective interventions with support from partners.

Mumbai project

PSI/India targets high-risk behavior groups of sex workers (SWs), clients of SWs and long-haul truck drivers in Mumbai with HIV-prevention activities. So far, the Mumbai project has touched 6,000 SWs in “red-light” areas of Mumbai, 600,000 men at risk and 2,500 injecting drug users with:

• Interpersonal and mid-media communication.
• Condom social marketing.
• Voluntary counseling and testing centers.
• Drop-in centers.

Additionally, PSI/Mumbai’s Saadhan Helpline provides counseling and information services to the general population.

Reproductive Health

PSI/India’s comprehensive family planning messaging and maternal health programs span 17 states. They create informed demand and provide reliable supplies of quality, affordable products, including:

• Oral and injectable contraceptives.
• Intra-uterine devices.
• Emergency contraceptives.
• Vitamin supplements.
• Drugs to prevent post-partum hemorrhage.

In the state of Rajasthan, PSI/India manages a government-sponsored health center that provides antenatal and post-natal care, immunization, treatment of childhood illnesses and other services. With funding from KfW and David and Lucile Packard Foundation, PSI/India uses a variety of communication methods to reach thousands of women in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand with family planning messaging. PSI/India also markets the women’s anemia-prevention nutritional supplements, Vitalet and Vitalet PREG.

PSI/India’s five-year reproductive health initiative in 11 states is building the capacity of private-public health care providers, promoting underutilized products and creating demand for the services of trained, qualified health service providers.

Child Survival Safe Water

More than 600,000 Indian children die of dehydration from diarrhea each year. 3 Water disinfectants, rehydration salts and zinc supplementation are low-cost solutions that can yield priceless benefits. PSI/India currently works to lower incidence of diarrheal diseases and related child mortality in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Orissa.

PSI/India also markets Safewat, a water disinfectant, and various brands of oral rehydration salts and zinc tablets. A pilot program is under way to promote the use of ORS and zinc tablets to reduce morbidity and mortality due to diarrheal disease among children under age 5 in Rajasthan.

1. 1. Source: UNAIDS: India Country Situation 2008.
2. 2. Source: HIV in India – A Complex Epidemic, New England Journal of Medicine, March 2007.
3. 3. Source: USAID, August 2002.

Latest News

• Project Axshya to manage 300 districts across 21 states to control TB population
  March 23, 2011
• International Conference on Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS: Role of Insurance Sector in India
  February 2, 2011
• Towards Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS: Role of Insurance Sector in India
  October 22, 2010
• PSI in the Indian Express - A group medical insurance, tailor-made for people living with HIV
  May 3, 2010
• PSI in Campaign India - Ask the expert; Use Freedom 5 - A New Family Planning Campaign for PSI
  April 22, 2010
• PSI in Indian Express - TB awareness films to be screened at PVR cinemas
  March 29, 2010
• PSI in The Hindu - TB claims a life every 90 seconds in country
  March 28, 2010

Resources

• Towards Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS: Role of Insurance Sector in India