Heena Sharma Blog

Training lay people to conduct HIV testing can be an effective approach to reach high-risk populations and prevent the spread of the infection throughout the world, a study has found. Lay providers can serve as a critical addition to efforts to help achieve the United Nations' global HIV targets by 2020 and help to cover the "last mile" of HIV services to at-risk populations. The study -- published in PLOS ONE -- suggests that community-based HIV testing is an effective approach to reach people at risk of HIV who have never been tested or test infrequently. Key at-risk populations include people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, female sex workers, and first-time HIV testers. A cross-sectional survey of 1,230 individuals tested by lay providers found that 74 per cent of clients belonged to at-risk populations, 67 per cent were first-time HIV testers, and 85 per cent preferred lay provider testing to facility-based testing. Read More

Privacy of patients who go for HIV testing and counselling in the national capital's government hospitals remains a prime concern as many of them don't have separate counselling rooms for males and females, a study has found. The study, titled "Integrated Counselling and HIV Testing Centres of Delhi: An Evaluation", by Dr Anita Khokhar, Director Professor, Community Medicine, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, along with Dr Vinoth Gnana Chellaiyan of the Department of Community Medicine at Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Kelambakkam, Chennai, revealed that a majority of the Integrated Counseling and HIV Testing Centres (ICTCs) in the national capital lacked separate rooms for male-female counselling and nor was there adequate space inside the allocated room. According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), 93 medical facilities under the Centre and the state governments in Delhi have ICTCs. Eleven medical fac