INDIA: OVER 3,000 NEW HIV CENTRES TO COME UP

NEW DELHI (NNN-IANS) -- India's health ministry will set up 3,000 new integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTCs) across the country, union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told parliament Friday.

'In the year 2011-12, the government has proposed to open 3,954 facility integrated model ICTCs. The government has already set up 5,246 ICTCs under National AIDS Control Programme (NACP),' Azad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The ICTCs provide facilities of pre and post HIV test counselling, confirmation of HIV infection, provision of basic information on prevention, care, and treatment.

'The government has proposed to open 881 ICTCs under public-private partnership (PPP), and 15 mobile ICTCs in the country,' Azad added.

With over 2.5 million HIV positive people in the the country, the government and civil society have been in the process of finalising the NACP's Phase IV. -- NN-HIV