Indian Private Clinics Are Now To Inform the Government About All The HIV-Positive Patients

All the private medical facilities connected with HIV-positive patients ought to inform the National Aids Control Organization (NACO) under ministry of indian health and family welfare to collect the data for the list of HIV/AIDS cases they are treating. the measure like that is needed to get a proper data on HIV-positive population in India.

Actually, there are more than two million people living with HIV in India, this is the third-largest population of people infected with the virus on the planet, after South Africa and Nigeria.

“Currently, there is no system to collect information from all the private clinics. Even though in our advertisements we display that HIV/AIDS treatment in government hospitals is free of cost and confidential, many patients go to private hospitals to protect their identity. We can’t force the patients to come to our hospitals. Because there is a taboo associated with HIV/AIDS, and patients feel shy of coming to a government hospital, we miss a considerable data on HIV/AIDS. We want to get an accurate and authentic data on HIV/AIDS. As health is a state subject, we have asked the state governments to sign Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with the private hospitals in their area so that we can at least get the actual number of HIV/AIDS patients. The government will also duly validate the data from private clinics and hospitals. Confidentiality of the patients’ details will remain intact but we will have the numbers,- commented the decision Dr Arun K Panda, additional secretary, NACO.