With just 10 viral load test facilities across the States to annually measure number of HIV virus in 10,000 persons living with HIV (PlHIV) receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), a large number of 8,40,000 such patients are unaware if their body is responding successfully to the treatment they are getting at the 470 ART centres in the country.
Viral load test shows how much HIV virus is in a small sample of blood. The lower the amount, the better. The test has been declared by the WHO as “the gold standard for determining treatment failure and resistance” of the deadly disease.
Due to various reasons including shortage of funds, the Government has failed to cover all the PlHIV.
“Presently, the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) under the Health Ministry is implementing the Viral load testing programme through ten viral load testing facilities in Government run facilities across the country and around 10,000 tests are done annually.
“Now under the National Aids Control Programme Phase IV, we are scaling up the facilities in the next five years to cover all 8,50,000 patients on the first line ART besides those failing to respond to the treatment,” a senior official from the NACO said.
He pointed out that treatment of HIV patients after finding out the number of HIV virus is the safest and most effective method.
Under the expansion plan to be implemented in a phased manner, 8,50,000 tests will be conducted per year. Priority will be give to the patients with those getting ART for more than 5 years followed by all HIV +ve pregnant women and all children on the therapy.
To begin with, the NACO has proposed to do tentatively 2,10,000 test in 2015-16, covering nearly 25 per cent of all PlHIVs on ART, then taking it to 50 per cent and 80 per cent in the following next two years respectively.
Viral load testing is particularly important in identifying HIV-positive newborns, since any infant born to an HIV-positive mother will be sero-positive until about 12-18 months of age. It is particularly important to identify these infants and start treating them with ART as soon as possible in order to prevent opportunistic infections and complications, the official added.