Our Correspondent
IMPHAL, February 28
As part of providing benefits under various social protection schemes, the state authority has started to provide Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MNREGA (Scheme) job cards of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the state.
According to official sources available here, a total of 2099 PLHA were given MNREGA job cards till October 2014.
Besides the state authority 313 PLHA got AAY cards while another 1429 PLHA received BPL cards respectively, the government source claimed.“For case, support and treatment of PLHA, the government is providing free anti-retroviral treatment to HIV positive people at 9 ART (anti-retroviral treatment) centres and 11 Link ART centres,” the source added.
It also added that there are OST (Oral Substitution Therapy) centres functioning at the government health centres and 8 other run by the NGOs which include SASO,MNP+,Care Foundation Imphal,SHALOM, Care Ukhrul,DPU Kumbi run centres.
Out of the proposed 14 more OST centres ,about 12 centres have been opened this year.The already opened centre include district hospitals of Thoubal, Senapati,Churachandpur and Chandel,Community Health Centres(CHC) at Kakching and Singjamei, Primary Health Centres(PHC) at Lilong,Saikul, Moreh,Motbung,Moirang, and Wangoi, according to another infofmed source available here.
For better control and management of HIV/AIDS, 92 integrated counseling and testing centres(ICTCs) have been opened all across the state at RIMS,JNIMS,all the district hospitals and at some selected CHCs,PHCs and some private hospitals, it added.
Besides to fill the testing facility gap in remote andn hard to reach areas, 6 mobile ICTCs are currently functioning in all the five hill districts and one in Imphal East district. Multi-drug regime(MDR) for PPTCT(Prevention of parents to child transmission) programme was launched on December 1 last year for effective prevention of HIV transmission from parent to child.
In Manipur, out of 7,55,331 blood samples screened upto August this year, since 1996, the total number of HIV positive is 43,707 including 12,335 women and 2,910 children,reports said. As per sentinel surveillance report 2010, the Intravenous Drug Users contribute 12.89 per cent of the HIV positive cases, men having sex with men 10.4 per cent, female sex workers 2.8 per cent, STD patients 11.2 per cent and pregnant women 0.74 per cent.
