KMC Hospital starts anti-retroviral-therapy

Mangalore, February 16: Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Attavar, on Thursday launched anti retroviral therapy (ART).

Dr. K Ramanarayan Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University was the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony held at Sushrutha Hall of the hospital.

Informing about the Centre Dr. John T Ramapuram, Professor and In Charge of VCTC/ART Centre said “The Centre is a NACO sponsored Private Public Partnership (PPP) program. The services provided by ART Centre are free and are provided under medical supervision including counseling, first line ART (Medicines) and CD4 testing”.

“Now we have a very good team of dedicated doctors who train the doctors of Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagalore, Hassan and Udupi Districts on HIV/AIDS and nearly 450 doctors here have been trained by us”

Availability of specialist doctors services from various departments of the Hospital and Dedicated team consisting of staff from the ICTC, are the strength of the ART Centre at KMC Hospital said Dr. John adding that the future expansion plans of this Centre is to provide second line of the ART.

Speaking about the activities conducted by the ICTC he said “Education program for various associations of Doctors in and around Mangalore since 1998 with respect to HIV/AIDS. Till date around 20511 patients are tested and counseled, out of which 3352 has turned out to be positive for HIV. Also have conducted various training and awareness programs for medical/paramedical staff and NGOs”.

He also said “Stigma is fading away slowly; due to this the society has started accepting the HIV/AIDS patients. We do believe that the work done by us in this regard as had a positive impact on the health of the community. The awareness in the general public regarding the disease has decently gone up. They have learned to accept an HIV patient into their midst. They know about the route of transmission and they know about the safe sexual practices. With this knowledge we hope to bring down the rate of transmission. We have seen the mortality declining. There by they have an improved quality of life. Most of them are gainfully employed also.”

Dr. Venkata Rai Prabhu and Dr. Madhusudhan were also present among others.