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 …

1. Is there a provision of CD4 machine for all ART roll-out centers?
2. 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).

3. 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).

regards,

Swami

swamiiyer@...