The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Strategies to tone up facilities at STD clinics

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Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Strategies to tone up facilities at STD clinics

Special Correspondent

The aim is to strengthen HIV/AIDS programme in the State, says Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj

Approach will focus on capacity-building among, and training of, medical officers
Last year, 20 lakh persons visited voluntary testing and counselling centres

CHENNAI: The government is working out strategies to improve the facilities at STD clinics across the State in an effort to strengthen the HIV/AIDS programme in Tamil Nadu, Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj said on Monday.

Inaugurating the first annual science symposium on HIV/AIDS organised by the YRG Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG-CARE), he said the approach would focus on capacity-building among, and training of, medical officers.

The event was supported by a host of units, including the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Mr. Subburaj said that last year, an estimated 20 lakh persons had visited voluntary testing and counselling centres, which aggregate 780 units. The number might go up this year. About one lakh patients were registered for anti-retroviral therapy. The number of registrants was a challenge not only because the therapy was expensive but also because the patients represented a “gene pool” that had the potential to spread infections, Mr. Subburaj said.

He urged scientists to evolve a solution to HIV/AIDS, as Tamil Nadu, which had one of the most robust HIV/AIDS programmes in the country, pumped in several crore of rupees annually for implementing various interventions.

Supriya Sahu, project director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS), said the TANSACS would seek ISO certification for the network of anti-retroviral therapy centres, blood banks and integrated counselling and testing centres in a bid to shift the emphasis from quantitative reach to quality areas.

The TANSACS also planned to rope in the private sector for the HIV/AIDS campaign. Private sector hospitals were being mapped at the district level, and the objective was to channel five basic services through them: management of HIV-TB co-infection, prevention of parent-to-child transmission, STD and sexually transmitted infections and HIV counselling and testing. The involvement of the private sector, she said, would facilitate a continuum of treatment, care and support for patients.

More research

Ms. Sahu called for more research on issues such as HIV-TB co-infection and side- effects of the second line of anti-retroviral drugs. At present, the critical information gap in these areas was being experienced while better interventional programmes were being charted out. The TANSACS launched an operations research initiative for the involvement of all government medical colleges to address the lack of scientific research to guide HIV/AIDS management. As of now, 14 colleges had enrolled themselves for collaborative research, and the results would benefit the HIV/AIDS campaign over the next six months, she said.

Suniti Solomon, director, YRG-CARE, said the international symposium would be made an annual fixture.

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