ART Roll-out - request the attention of the authorities...

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

ART roll out was started at Namakkal in Jan 2005 (First of its kind in a

district hospital in India). Now it stands next to Tambaram (GHTM) in number of

people accessing the services. There are also so many best practices in this ART

center which can be replicated across all other centers (excluding the absence

of a CD4 machine).

Initially there was a CD4 machine at Namakkal. But after 6 months of the start

of the program the machine was sent back to Chennai for un-known reasons. After

that the blood samples from Namakkal (for CD4 test) are being carried to Madurai

for testing. Hence the CD4 test is done only for 2 days in a week (Monday and

Thursday). Presently for the past 2 months a blood sample for CD4 test is not

being drawn.

Can the authorities throw some light on the following points for the benefit of

the BENEFICIARIES …

Is there a provision of CD4 machine for all ART roll-out centers?

In case if one center has to take care of the load of 3 or 4 districts for CD4

testing, (for example Madurai - Tamilnadu) then whether the required number of

re-agents and man power are made available at the center?

(When the required number of re-agents is not made available then naturally the

samples are not accepted and hence at the centers where CD4 test is not

available also stop drawing blood samples for CD4 diagnosis. Ultimately we miss

out people who might require ART and, thereby might not reduce the rate of

mortality due to HIV/AIDS).

Should NACO scale-up ART centers (Number of centers) or should they first

fill-up the gaps in the existing ART Roll-out centers (like filling up the gap

in human-resource, infrastructure, diagnostic facilities, and inventory).

Currently at Namakkal the absence of a CD4 Machine is really a big hurdle to the

kind of quality service being provided by the ART - team. Will the concerned

authorities look in to this?

Regards,

Swami

e-mail: <swamiiyer@...>