Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Testing time for people affected with HIV

Jayaraj Manepalli

Shortage of drug, test kits adds to their woes

GUNTUR: Shortage of test kits and drugs has added to the woes of HIV patients desirous of undergoing the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Guntur.

Kits are required to conduct the CD4 count test, also called the T4 count or T-helper cells test, which is useful to determine the patient's immunity system, the state of the disease and to predict the risk of complications and debilitating infections.

Indent placed

Hospital authorities have expressed their helplessness, as they are yet to receive the kits several months after placing an indent with the Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society in Hyderabad. A few days ago, the stocks of even ART drugs and the basic HIV screening test kits were exhausted.

A CD4 count and a viral load test are ordered when a person is first diagnosed with HIV as part of a baseline measurement. A normal human being has a count ranging from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimetre of blood.

According to the public health guidelines, preventive therapy should be launched when a HIV-positive person registers a count below 200.

The cost of undergoing the test at private centres will be Rs. 2,000. However, doctors at the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre in the GGH do not consider the findings of private laboratories authentic as they were many instances of discrepancies. Guntur is the second among the top six districts in the country with a high incidence of HIV and AIDS.

Over 1,700 patients come to the GGH for ART. Some 2,500 patients were tested and their CD4 count was found to be below 200. They were put under the `Opportunistic Infection' treatment. On an average, 200-300 CD4 tests are done a month.

At the ART Centre, Medical Officer B.V.N.V. Prasad told The Hindu that stocks were expected in a week.

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