Many HIV-positive patients registering at the anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, are stopping treatment midway, a senior Health Department official has claimed.
P.P. Pramod Kumar, District AIDS Control Officer, said on Wednesday that the trend had been noticed since 2014, though the ART centre had started functioning at the medical college in the 90s.
He added that around 200 people had stopped treatment midway since 2011, and that details of 50 of them had been traced. “Most of them had given fake addresses while registering at the centre. There were no phone numbers either. But with the help of social organisations we could trace some of them in the past few months. Some others may have been dead by now,” Dr. Pramod Kumar said.
He pointed out that social stigma must have been one of the reasons for the abrupt ending of treatment. Most of them might be under mental stress too. The patients are fom Kannur, Malappuram, Wayanad and Kozhikode districts. ART centres at government hospitals offer free treatment to HIV-positive patients. According to the National AIDS Control Organisation, “successful viral suppression restores the immune system and halts the onset and progression of disease as well as reduces chances of getting opportunistic infections.”
On their social background, Dr. Pramod Kumar said a majority belonged to below-poverty line families. There were many unemployed people too. He said the department of community medicine at the medical college was planning to undertake a detailed survey to find out if there was any perceptible socio-economic pattern among the patients.
AIDS Day observance
Earlier, District Medical Officer V. Jayasree told the media that the Health Department would hold several events in the coming days to mark World AIDS Day on December 1. Know Your HIV Status is the theme of this year’s programmes.
“The target has been declared as 90-90-90 by 2020, which is diagnosis of 90% of HIV-infected patients, ensuring ART treatment for 90% of them, and controlling the virus in 90% of those undergoing treatment.”
She pointed out that the adult HIV prevalence in Kerala was 0.12%, while at the national level, it was 0.26%. As many as 30,305 people have been found to be HIV-positive in the State so far. Of the 5,35,881 people who were examined in Kozhikode district, 4,741 were found to be HIV-positive. As many as 2,399 people underwent treatment, she said.
