The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : HIV testing labs to get accreditation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 19, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

HIV testing labs to get accreditation

Staff Reporter

Facilities will have to meet prescribed quality standards

Chennai : Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) will introduce a system of accreditation for government and private HIV/AIDS testing laboratories, its Project Director Supriya Sahu said on Monday.

TANSACS-accredited laboratories would have to meet prescribed standards, Ms. Sahu said at the inauguration of a five-day workshop on emerging issues in HIV testing. People would thus be assured of quality service, she explained. Laboratory technicians of accredited centres will be required to complete a certificate course in HIV testing and counselling. The laboratories will display a TANSACS logo.

Ms. Sahu said that government centres for testing and counselling were regularly subjected to a quality check. Five per cent of samples tested by these centres were sent to medical colleges to confirm if the testing was accurate.

"The time has come to test as many people as possible," Ms. Sahu said. TANSACS would intensify its `Test is Best' campaign to urge more people to volunteer for testing. She urged young people to ask for a counselling/testing centre in their university or college campus if it would help them.

Saliva testing

The TANSACS Project Director said that several new testing methods, including saliva-based testing kits for homes, were available in India. Issues of affordability and reliability of new tests have to be deliberated, she said. A saliva-based testing home kit costs about Rs. 1,000. Balakrishnan Pachamuthu, Laboratory Manager at YRG Care, said that saliva-based testing was reliable but excludes the component of counselling when done at home.

P. Krishnamurthy, Project Director of Aids Prevention and Control Project of Voluntary Health Services, said that saliva-based testing counselling was important to curb new infection. About 500 counsellors are expected to participate in a conference on how to help patients to be held in Chennai shortly.

Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj called for accurate reporting by the media to remove any misconceptions that people may have about HIV/AIDS. The workshop is jointly organised by USAID, Internews Network and a few agencies working on AIDS awareness.

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