After visiting Dr. Suniti’s model hospital that has taken care of 12,000 HIV patients, I rushed back to the Accord Hotel to have a lunch meeting with Dr. N.M. Samuel. I was introduced to Dr. N.M. Samuel through Bob Bilheimer, the producer and director of the HIV/AIDS documentary film, A Closer Walk. Due to limited time in Chennai, I regrettably was unable to visit Dr. Sam’s hospital in Namakkal, 300 km from Chennai.

Dr. Sam has been working on HIV/AIDS since 1987 with the Christian Medical College where he received his medical training. Chennai and its state, Tamil Nadu, have been the most open and progressive in handling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Dr. Sam beamed as he proudly told me that “we were the first one to provide free testing to patients.”

In the treatment of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Sam chose to focus on mother-to-child transmission because he firmly believes that this type of prevention can be most effective with proper medical care. “It hurts so much to see children born with HIV when they come to the world.” He convinced the university to help build the hospital with a group of volunteer students back in 1998. “In the beginning, it was difficult to recruit medical students to work in my hospital because they don’t like this disease. Nowadays, we have so many students and they are very talented ones in my hospital. It says how much has changed when it comes to society’s attitude and acceptance of this epidemic.”

Since I am most interested in the interaction between local, national, and international actors in the fight against HIV/AIDS, I probed Dr. Sam to go deeper into the structural challenge he has witnessed in the past two decades.

We began talking about donors, and Dr. Sam was very appreciative of international donors’ recognition of the importance of investing in India. “I hope to see more resources focused on treatment, but most donors are more interested in prevention. They have to recognize that treatment is key to prevention because if one HIV positive patient is treated, he or she would receive all the information about how not to further spread the virus through comprehensive treatment programs.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest donor in India. Through the Avahan Initiative, $258 million US dollars have been committed to date focused on prevention in India.

“Microbicide is our new hope. It is supposed to be spread in women’s vaginal area to kill the HIV virus. There has been a lot of research and development in this area. While the first trial in Africa was a failure, scientists and doctors are not giving up. Once effective microbicide is developed, it would be revolutionary in the world of preventing HIV/AIDS. I am so glad to see donors’ interest, but it really needs a lot more resources and support. It’s like vaccine of HIV virus.”

As a devout Christian, Dr. Sam has also been very active in engaging the religious community to help address HIV/AIDS prevention, especially among medical school students. “I started my medical practice in Kenya and have lived in many developing countries because I truly believe that doctors have the obligation to help the most needed.” So after his retirement from teaching at the university in June 2007, Dr. Sam continues his work to bring together international faith-based groups for training on sex education and ethical issues.

Dr. Sam is also planning to start a counseling center in Manipur, a border town in India close to Burma. There are many IV drug users who are HIV positive. Also, trafficking of Burmese women into Manipur and the surrounding area is increasing. Dr. Sam wants to focus on helping these populations because, in his words, these are the most needed.

It has been amazing for me to see how much impact a committed individual can have fighting HIV/AIDS. Dr. Suniti and Dr. Sam, both trained medical doctors, choose to stay in their community to treat individuals. While both have a thorough understanding of the global structure, Dr. Suniti and Dr. Sam have offered their own response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in their local areas. It is not glamorous. No big policy talk. Simply through their work, they’ve helped tens of thousands of lives. I hope policy-makers back home can see this and create the most effective and realistic global response. After all, as the most resourceful country in the world, we DO have the responsibility to craft a policy to make a real dent on the greatest health challenge in today’s world.

 Wenchi Yu Perkins
Human Rights Program Director