AP: HIV testing kits planned for hospitals

[Guest guest]

HIV testing kits planned for hospitals

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: Buoyed by the response from private medical practitioners to

the `Be Bold' campaign initiated last year, Andhra Pradesh State Aids

Control Society (APSACS) will soon supply HIV testing kits,

Nevirapine drug and free delivery kits, to selected hospitals in the

State, in which an average of 50 deliveries take place.

" The APSACS has completed the exercise of district-wise mapping of

the hospitals. The idea is to encourage hospitals perform more

deliveries and give their assent to deliveries of HIV infected

mothers too, " Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV and

Anti Retro Viral Therapy Consultant Bindu said on Monday.

She was here to take part in the three-day counselling on PPCTC for

staff nurses working in Community Health Clinics and ART centres

conducted by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on

Government General Hospital premises.

The programme would address issues of stigma and discrimination and

was aimed at counselling nursing professionals working in pre and

anti-natal wards.

Focus would be on hygiene and universal safety precautions while

handling the deliveries, she said.

The APSACS is also toying with the idea of upgrading of PPCTC centres

by setting up facilities to transport the blood samples to the

nearest ART centre within a day and give the report of CD4 count to

the patient within a day.

The project would be implemented in Guntur district on a pilot basis

and extended to entire State, she added.

The Government was also mulling over the idea of setting up five more

ART centres in Machilipatnam, Chittoor and Tenali in Guntur district

etc.

Of the 46,304 deliveries which took place in the district in 2007,

645 were tested positive with the Ante Natal prevalence rate touching

1.39 per cent, which is slightly higher than the prevalence rate of

the State at 0.88 per cent. Head of Department of Obstetrics and

Gynecology Vasanth Kumar and others were present.

http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/22/stories/2008042250670200.htm