New Delhi, (PTI): In an effort to ensure continuity in treatment of AIDS patients, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) would be issuing computerised smart cards to patients, who are being treated at any of the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres across the country.

"This was being done to keep track of the growing number of AIDS patients in the country and ensure continuity in their treatment," NACO Director General, Sujatha Rao, told PTI.

The smart cards which will store the entire case history of the patient will also help them in seeking treatment anywhere in the country.

"Sometimes patients move from one city to another and it affects their treatment. But with the smart card they can approach any ART centre and get their medicines," Rao said.

"We are in the process of computerisation of all records, and would make smart cards compulsory soon," she said.

Treatment is provided free to AIDS patients at the ART centres across the country.

Doctors say in many cases patients do not turn up regularly for treatment, forcing doctors and medical workers to make efforts to locate them.

In order to trace these cases, the ART centres require the accurate addresses and the smart cards would make their task easier.