AIDS hospital to open doors in Oct

KOLKATA: It is the first ray of hope for AIDS patients in this part of the country. Kolkata will soon have eastern India''s first ever AIDS Hospital, a facility that is expected to benefit at least 20,000 people.
The state-of-the-art hospital will open its doors in October this year. It will not only cater to HIV-positive and AIDS patients in West Bengal, but also those from North-East where the prevalence of the disease is quite high.The region has 4,728 confirmed AIDS patients and West Bengal has 5,399 HIV-positive cases.
The hospital, a joint venture of Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kolkata, and National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (an ICMR institution), is part of the Centre''s commitment to expand AIDS treatment programmes through the public healthcare system. Till now, only Calcutta Medical College and Hospital had a specialised HIV treatment unit but there were no beds for indoor treatment.
National AIDS Control Organisation has already recognised the upcoming AIDS hospital for distribution of anti-retroviral medicines. "NACO will supply all types of antiretroviral medicines to this centre," said the director of NICED Sujit Bhattacharya.
NACO has also forwarded a set of objectives to the Centre about care and support for HIV/AIDS patients. Key among these is the attempt to merge AIDS and TB control programmes to combat co-infection.
Such patients will be treated for free. The hospital will also conduct training workshops on the clinical management of HIV/AIDS and the "rational use" of antiretroviral drugs. It will provide antiretrovirals in the prevention of parent-to-child transmission programmes cosponsored by Unicef and also supply medicines to all government hospitals.
The AIDS hospital — on the fourth floor of ID Hospital — will have 10 beds, five each for males and females.
The floor is currently being relaid, after which the equipment will be installed. "The centre is expected to start full-fledged functioning by October," Bhattacharya said.
It will also have a doctor specially trained to treat opportunistic infections and post OI care. The state will deploy doctors and nurses for this treatment. In addition, the hospital will also conduct advanced tests like CD4 counts and viral load count.
It will also provide an excellent opportunity for NICED scientists to continue research on AIDS. "For successful research, there has to be a hospital attached to any institute.
This is the first of such facilities which will help us conduct our research. It will be an ideal arrangement for any research institute like ours," Bhattacharya added.