HIV testing facility to be made available in 3 Rajasthan Medical Colleges

Rajasthan: Viral load of HIV/AIDS patients will soon be detected by machines to be set up in three medical colleges of Rajasthan. Besides government colleges in Jaipur and Jodhpur, the RNT Medical College, Udaipur will also make available this detection facility for patients suffering from HIV and AIDS.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had launched a ‘Viral load testing for all people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV)’ initiative on Feb 26 this year. Samples were collected at ART centers and sent for testing to Mumbai. Earlier on, patients from Rajasthan had to travel to either Ahmedabad or Delhi for the tests.

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) will be providing the machine for Viral Load testing. Each of these viral load testing machines is believed to cost around Rs 90 Lakhs. Machine installation of the machine is already underway and will be up and running from next month.

Viral load helps in the assessment of the amount of HIV present in the blood. This assessment helps in monitoring the effectiveness of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) reports Udaipur Times.com