122 community care centres for HIV/AIDS infected in India

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) Altogether 122 community care centres and 54 Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres for the HIV/AIDS infected people are functioning in the country, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi told Rajya Sabha members today.

Denying that the HIV/AIDS infected people in the country were deprived of basic social rights, the Minister said in a written reply that under the National AIDS Control Programme-II, grants were provided to NGOs through State AIDS Control Societies for setting up low cost 10-bedded community care centres for the HIV/AIDS infected including terminally ill AIDS cases.

The centres, she said, provide a range of services that include short term shelter, nutritional care and support, nursing care, medicine for opportunistic infections, palliative care, and peer counselling.

AIDS cases are referred from community care centres to ART centres for clinical management of infections, she added.

Replying to another query, the Minister said the National AIDS Control Programme-Phase III has been prepared and was being discussed with development partners.

The proposal took into account the initiatives in reversing the epidemic all over the country, including Andhra Pradesh.

"The focus of the Phase III proposal is on prevention by expanding access to information and preventive services and also includes treatment of opportunistic infections and AIDS," she said, adding that implementation of NACP Phase III will start after the proposals are agreed to by development partners and was approved by the Government.

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