New oral substitution therapy centres

by Haryananewswire

CHANDIGARH, OCT 12

To reduce the prevalence of HIV among drug injecting users of Haryana, three new oral substitution therapy centres would be opened  at Panipat, Faridabad and Bahadurgarh. Also, seven new Targeted Intervention Projects including two for truckers and five for migrant labourers would be made functional during the current financial year.

          While stating this today, Haryana Health Minister, Rao Narender Singh said that the aim was to stop infection of HIV amongst highly vulnerable sections of the society. Such sections included sex workers, drug addicts, homosexuals, truck drivers and labourers belonging to other States.

          Earlier Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education, Mrs. Navraj Sandhu held fifth State Grievances Redressal Committee meeting of Haryana State AIDS Control Society. She reviewed the activities of Haryana State AIDS Control Society in detail. She stressed the need for making more efforts to provide services to people suffering from HIV and AIDS. She said that there was a downward trend in the number of HIV and AIDS patients globally. She highly appreciated the efforts made by Haryana State AIDS Control Society in achieving the targets.  

          She said that to make the treatment accessible to the HIV and AIDS patients at their doorstep, six new Link Anti Retroviral Treatment Centres would be established at district Fatehabad, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Gurgaon and Faridabad in this financial year raising the number of such centres to 17. She stressed the need to open two new Anti Retroviral Treatment Centres in Haryana as there was only one such Centre located at Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak. These centres would be opened in the year 2013-14.

          Mrs. Sandhu also heard the grievances of the representatives of the District Level Network of People living with HIV and AIDS. She directed the officials of the society that efforts should be made to trace all HIV positive persons in the State and get them on treatment under a campaign. She stressed that though the programme has improved considerably , quality and finer issues should be addressed immediately.

          Director General Health Services-cum-Project Director, Dr. Narinder Arora also made detailed deliberations in the meeting. He assured the representatives of the district level network of HIV positive patients that no discrimination will be tolerated against HIV positive people and requested their representatives to bring to his notice if any such case arises and strict action would be taken against the defaulter officials.