J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare launched the ‘‘Viral Load testing for all People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV),”at a function, in New Delhi today. The initiative will provide free of cost viral load testing for 12 lakh PLHIV on treatment in the country at least once a year.
Nadda further announced that after ‘Treat All’, Viral Load test is a big step forward in treating and monitoring people living with HIV. “This Viral Load test is of immense importance to monitor the effectiveness of treatment of patients taking lifelong Antiretroviral Therapy,” he said. Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare was also present at the launch function.
Nadda said that routine viral load testing will optimize the utilization of 1st line regimens, thus preventing drug resistance and ensuring the longevity of people living with HIV.
“Viral Load testing will empower medical officers at ART to detect failure on first line treatment early and therefore save PLHIV from developing resistance to drugs. It will also help in strengthening ‘Mission Sampark’ in tracking LFU (Loss to Follow Up) PLHIV,” Nadda added.
The Union Health Minister informed that in 2017, India revised the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) treatment protocols to initiate all PLHIV on ART “Treat All”. “This ‘Treat All’ initiative was started to ensure that treatment is started early and the virus transmission is curtailed both at the individual and the community level. Now about 12 lakh PLHIV are availing the benefit of free treatment from more than 530 ART centres,” Nadda stated.
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