New Test and treat policy for HIV - Fusion - WeRIndia

Though the incidents of HIV has been reducing over the years in India, still a significant portion of population are living with HIV.

India has the third largest HIV population in the world.

In order to help HIV patients, new ‘Test and Treat policy’ has been launched by Health Ministry.

JP Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare launched this program yesterday.

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Under this new program, those who have been tested and diagnosed as HIV positive will get ART regardless of their CD count or clinical stage.

This program is meant for all citizens including children who have been diagnosed as HIV positive.

The new ‘Test and Treat policy’ is aimed to save HIV diagnosed patients from all infections, particularly TB and also to improve their longevity and quality of life.

He also declared that a new National Strategic Plan for HIV will be developed soon to completely eradicate AIDS from the country.

Ideally, the plan will be developed for next seven years aiming to end the disease in the country after that period.

Indian government aimed to end AIDS by 2030 in the country. Hence, it is mulling to take several possible initiatives for the people so that it can reach the set goal.

The minister revealed that India has approximately 1600 ART and Linked ART sites where HIV/AIDS treatment is provided throughout the country.

India crossed 1 million people on ART recently. It is the second country in world to have such large numbers on free lifelong treatment.

It is estimated that 1.5 lakh deaths have been prevented due to ART and the expanding provision of ART has potential to save 4.5 lakh from deaths.

In this occasion, eight scientists and community workers are being felicitated by the Health Minister for their exemplary work in the field of HIV/AIDS.

Image credit: Support For International AIDS Memorial Day image by Sham Hardy is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/xshamx/3538898056/