To identify HIV cases, govt to replicate CBT method in state
JAIPUR: It is difficult to bring these people to the testing centres and they do not like to come to the service centres. CBT was launched to reach to these people.
DR SS CHAUHAN, RSACS project director
The Rajasthan State AIDS Control Society (RSACS) will identify HIV positive cases among the high risk group (HRG) through community based testing (CBT). For this, the society members will reach out to them.
The HRG people including female sex workers (FSW), men having sex with men (MSM), intravenous drug users (IDU), transgenders (TG), migrants and truckers keep themselves away from the mainstream of the society. “It is difficult to bring these people to the testing centres and they do not like to come to the service centres. CBT facility was launched so as to reach to these people at their doorstep for the testing,” said RSACS project director Dr SS Chauhan.
Rajasthan is the first state in the country to start CBT to identify of the HIV positive cases. The first CBT facility was inaugurated at Bhilwara in May this year.
Now, the facility is being extended to other districts of the state, as it is the prime focus of National HIV Counselling and Testing Services Guidelines (HTCS), 2016, set by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), said Chauhan. He said with the CBT facility available, every HRG person should be tested for the HIV.
Explaining about their plan, Satveer Lamba, assistant director of the NACO’s Basic Services Division, said, “Once the HRG people are identified, we reach to them and counsel them to go under HIV testing. A camp is organised for such people, in which only these people are included and they feel comfortable in getting the test done.”
In June this year, the NACO had given a letter of appreciation to Lamba for his efforts in successfully initiating the CBT in Rajasthan, which increased the accessibility of HIV testing among HRG population.
According to RSACS, the state has 11,942 FSW, 3,399 MSM, 1,250 IDU, 80,000 migrants and 20,000 truckers. The state has 23 antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres and 10 link ART centres.