The Goa Human Rights Commission today directed the state government to ensure optimum care and facilities for people living with HIV following a complaint filed by Peter F. Borges, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Human Touch Foundation.
Acting Goa Human Rights Commission Chairman and retired district court judge, A. D. Salkar has asked the Chief Secretary to issue responsibility in this regard. GHRC in its enquiry report said that there are no full-fledged facilities in the state of Goa to provide treatment for people living with HIV. There are no viral load testing facilities in the state of Goa for virological studies in HIV or for any other viruses. Presently, the samples are referred to J. J. Hospital, Mumbai for viral load testing. The state of Goa should make efforts to provide this essential facility to all the individuals who are in need of the same. The state of Goa through its Chief Secretary, Government of Goa will work out modalities to make available all essential facilities to people living with HIV. The state of Goa also will set up a full-fledged laboratory for viral load testing for virological studies in HIV and other viruses," the GHRC stated in an enquiry report. Peter argued that the goal of the ART treatment in force is viral suppression and routine viral load facility is of utmost importance to all those accessing treatment in the state. The current treatment strategy executed through Goa Medical College and Link ART centres at Mapusa, Margao, Chicalim and Ponda is ineffective and not coordinated in a professional manner. “There is a failure in the retainment of the patient on ART, leading to lost cases, loss/death of patients in follow up, patients reporting to Goa Medical College with an advanced staged of treatment failure, with very low CD4 counts.” It is required that results of any viral load investigations are available within 2-3 days. Hence the complainant asked for viral load testing in the state itself. Find us on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/pruthagoa?fref=ts> Google+ <https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PruthaGoa/posts> Twitter <https://twitter.com/Pruthagoa?lang=en> LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/prutha-goa?trk=biz-companies-cym> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
