| Govt. hospitals proud of their AIDS centres |
| BY A STAFF REPORTER | Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:27:26 IST |
| Bhagwati-like incident won’t occur at most reputed hospitals, deans say
The shocking incident of AIDS victim Bhishwajeet has shed a light of concern over the facilities provided by the city hospitals. Bhiswajeet from Orissa was found outside Bhagwati Hospital in Borivili and, judging from the behaviour of the security guard, had evidently been lying there for a few days, being denied admission by the hospital authorities. However, there is little to fear as the most reputed government hospitals in the city have fully functioning AIDS centres that are set to expand in the near future. Dr. Nirupa Borges is a senior medical practitioner who is handling the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) launched under the BMC. She said that the government has already launched an AIDS awareness and prevention programme. “We are following the guideline of the National AIDS Control Programme, which has been set up by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO),” she told us. “Under the MDACS, we have a special childbirth programme, training programmes and sensitisation workshops. We are joined in this endeavour by several city NGOs.” PPTCT — Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission — is a treatment by which HIV positive mothers are placed under constant specialised care and given the required medicines so that chances of passing on the infection to the foetus are brought down to a minimal. Through this society voluntary counselling and testing clinics have been set up at each government and peripheral hospital. “We have collaborated with the deans to provide those clinics with proper counsellors and infrastructure,” said Dr. Borges. “Confidential tests are conducted and traumatised patients are counselled for their mental well-being. While initially the patients are charged a nominal fee, the subsequent treatments like anti-retroviral therapy are free of cost.” Dr. Borges stressed on the welfare of STD-afflicted patients. “Studies have shown that they are all the more prone to HIV. A patient who has an STD has to be tested immediately for HIV and given immunity-boosting medicines,” she said. “They fall into the high-risk group, along with commercial sex workers, homosexuals, truck drivers and intravenous drug users. Each hospital has its own clinic for sexually transmitted infections, strengthened by us.” Sensitisation and awareness programmes are carried out for company employees, journalists, students and educationists, among others. “As AIDS cases became more frequent, studies showed that AIDS victims often have to run from clinic to clinic as they require different kinds of treatment,” Dr. M A Yeolekar told us. “Thus we designed and set up an integrated HIV Clinic at Sion Hospital, which is only for AIDS patients. It has all the facilities required for treating the various all-outs of AIDS. “We have three segments,” he continued. “Outdoor, indoor and critical that includes anti-retroviral therapy. Outdoor is when the patient is not too critical and does not need intensive treatment. Sometimes when he is brought in an ambulance, he is treated in it then and there. Indoor treatment is normally when a person is unaware of his state of illness and is at the opportunistic infection stage.” Yeolekar went on to explain that AIDS being a condition where the immune system is broken down bit by bit, pathogens or germs that normally cannot enter the human body can pose a threat. “When that becomes too much, a patient is critical,” said Yeolekar. “We have to put him through ART or anti-retroviral therapy, a rather complicated procedure.” The dean raises concern about child victims. “Of late there has been a spurt in child AIDS cases,” he admits. “This would be due to mothers being infected with AIDS at the time of pregnancy. More awareness about the disease is required.” Currently Sion Hospital has over 1000 AIDS patients registered with it, and approximately 550 patients in anti-retroviral therapy. Dr. Nilima Kshirsagar, dean of KEM Hospital, said that the hospital has had facilities for AIDS patients since 1999. “Out of the total OPD attendance of 4000, 500-600 are AIDS patients,” she said. “Naturally we have a special OPD unit for HIV/AIDS patients.” Out of ethical motives, she refused to speak of any particular case. “KEM provides free anti retroviral drugs to patients as per the guidelines set down by the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society and NACO. The drugs are procured from the MDACS on a need basis.” When contacted, Bhagwati Hospital refused to comment, though their official response is that they lacked adequate space at that time. Perhaps Bhiswajeet went to the wrong hospital.
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