Village Health Workers - Get rapid HIV Testing Kits across India

July 7, 2008

Jul 6th, 2008. Dr. Avnish Jolly

Village health workers across India will soon be equipped to conduct pre and

post test Counseling and HIV/AIDS tests through rapid HIV test kits, which need

just a prick on a person's fingertip and the results are known in 20 minutes.

Currently India have around 2.5 million People Living with HIV/AIDS and there

are nearly 4,500 ICTC centres.

Ajay Khera, Joint Director , National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO)

shared that we have recently adopted the Whole Blood Fingerprick

Testing Technology (WBFTT) and have piloted the project in a few

districts. We hope it will be rolled out across the country by early 2009.

NACO is National agency under the Health and Family Welfare Ministry,

GOI to control and treat HIV/AIDS. It spreads awareness among people

about HIV/AIDS though information and education campaigns and also

providing care and support to the People Living With HIV

Khera added this will allow the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANMs)

visiting families in rural India to conduct HIV tests on people

willing to do it and it will be pioneering concept of HIV/AIDS

testing, care and support and help give a better picture of the disease.

He explained that since the health workers have good relations with

the villagers and have access to families, equipping them for HIV

tests would go a long way in reducing fear and stigma related with

HIV/AIDS and if ANMs finds some one positive, then the person can come

to the nearby Integrated Counselling And Testing Centre (ICTC) for

confirmed tests and further counseling.

The new technology does not require separating serum and red blood

cells from the blood sample, as is the practice now. This will help

save time and reduce workload at ICTCs.

Khera added that presently people are called to the testing centre,

counseled and then their blood samples are collected. They are then

asked to come the next day to collect their report. " But with the new

technology, we can save much time and said a pilot project to study

its effectiveness is being conducted in 10 districts of Maharashtra,

Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. As soon as the pilot

project's results come in, it will be rolled out across the country.

Recommended Posts