The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Campaign to promote voluntary HIV testing

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Friday, Jul 10, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Campaign to promote voluntary HIV testing

People cautioned against HIV testing at private clinics

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh State Aids Control Society (APSACS) Director R. Chandravadan has cautioned people against utilising the services for HIV testing at private clinics, saying they do only one test as against three done compulsorily by the government-run Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTCs).

At a press conference here on Thursday, he said “it is dangerous to go to private services. It is a big mistake.” While the ICTCs carry out three tests on a mandatory basis, most of the times in private services, only one test was conducted which was also not “fool-proof.” He said the private nursing homes do not have trained lab technicians and counsellors for dealing with HIV cases.

Special campaign

Mr. Chandravadan announced that APSACS was launching a special campaign ‘Shubam’ to promote voluntary HIV testing among the most vulnerable groups like female sex workers, men having sex with men, migrants and truckers. The campaign will be taken up in a mission mode manner from July 12 to 30. It aims to improve referral to testing centres, convert all unknown HIV cases to known cases and streamline positive cases towards care, support and treatment services. Around one lakh people were expected to get tested during the special drive.

He said that of the total projected population of 8, 48, 43, 957 in the State, an estimated 50 per cent were sexually active adults. Among them, 25. 45 lakh (six per cent) were estimated to be prone to risky sexual behaviour. He said that it was estimated that the population of high risk groups was 1.64 lakh and only 10 per cent of them know their HIV status.

Annual affair

The Shubam campaign would also address the general population and would be conducted every year. He said HIV prevalence continued to be on the downward trend and the goal was to totally reverse and halt its spread by 2012.

Currently, there were 677 ICTCs in the State and another 250 would be started soon. Another 80 such centres would be started in Public-Private Partnership mode in private nursing homes.

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