As part of its attempt to go full-throttle to accelerate a reversal of HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) has switched to the Public Private Participation (PPP) mode. The idea is to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV among pregnant women accessing private health sector.
“Under the PPP mode, we have roped in around 10 local hospitals in the private sector, imparted training to their staff and given them kits to be distributed among HIV-afflicted patients. These hospitals, in turn, forward us the monthly progress report of the patient,” says T.V.S.N. Sastry, Krishna District AIDS Control Officer.
The authorities are upbeat about the fact that Krishna district stood first in the State in the implementation of Mamata Plus programme, designed to prevent vertical transmission of HIV infection from pregnant women to newborns by introducing a triple-drug regimen as against a single-drug treatment with Nevirapine.
Around 85 per cent of HIV transmission happens due to unsafe sex, while around 15 per cent is passed on from the pregnant mother to the child. The Mamata Plus programme made prevention possible by use of drugs started from 14 weeks of pregnancy irrespective of the CD4 count till the end of breast-feeding, i.e. up to one or one and half years. The baby, meanwhile, is given Nevarapine syrup for six weeks soon after birth.
“Of the 33,000 HIV positive cases in Krishna district, more than 12,500 of them are on ART (Antiretro Viral Therapy). The number is huge, but the incidence of AIDS is surely declining in Krishna,” says Mr. Sastry.
“Even in the transmission of the virus in the antenatal stage, Krishna district recorded the lowest number of cases,” says Mr. Sastry, pointing to the fact that all PHCs in the district had been transformed into Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres, and besides the three existing ART centres in Vijayawada and in Machilipatnam, one more centre is proposed at Gudivada.
