NACO signed MoU with 16 ministries to counter AIDS: Minister Anupriya Patel

Stressing on the need for multi-faceted and multi-sectoral response to eliminate HIV/AIDS, Union minister Anupriya Patel said Saturday the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) had signed an MoU with 16 key ministries to augment a comprehensive AIDS response.

In addition to this NACO has signed MoUs with more than 250 industries of public and private sectors to mobilise their support, Patel, who is the minister of state for health, said at a function to mark World AIDS Day.

"The government is not only fully funding the HIV/AIDS programme but also increasing the resource envelope in accordance with the programme needs," she said.

At the function, Patel also released the operational guidelines on HIV/TB intervention in prisons and the NACO calendar for 2019.

She said the HIV/AIDS programme had focused on more than one million people from high-risk group and kept the infection in control through comprehensive and intense targeted interventions services.

"The programme has also given attention to eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV and syphilis by 2020. Under the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan complete ante-natal check up facility is provided to all pregnant women across the country, including HIV testing," she said.

Patel said in 2017-18 more than two crore pregnant women were tested for HIV.

Reiterating the commitment to end the epidemic by 2030, Patel stated that the national programme had laid great emphasis on counselling and testing among general clients and the NACO has initiated community-based screening of HIV to reach first 90 out of the target 90:90:90 by 2020.

She said with the launch of 'Test and Treat' in 2017, every person living with HIV (PLHIV) is eligible to be put on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) as soon as he/she is detected and that today 70 per cent of PLHIV, who know their status, are on ART.

The minister further said that in a historic move, the HIV/AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017 was unanimously passed by the government and it had also come into force.

"This act provides an enabling environment to HIV affected and infected population where they get a seamless access to services and a comprehensive grievance redressal mechanism with ombudsman at the Centre and Complaints Officer at establishments, she added.

Patel also paid tributes to all the lives lost to HIV/AIDS not just in India but globally.

The event concluded on the note of renewed commitment to the cause of HIV by the government and each and every partner who have contributed to the successful halting of the HIV epidemic in the country.