CHENNAI: In an effort to improve access to diagnosis to have a major impact on HIV treatment in the State, Tamil Nadu is planning to allow self-testing with HIV kit at home. This will be permitted after quality testing and also evaluating how it can be adopted in the State, said Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan.
The initiative comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday encouraged self-testing to improve diagnosis and help treat HIV. India does not allow self-tests at present.
“We will look at the recommendations and evaluate how to adopt them This will be done in coordination with WHO and the Union Health Ministry,” Radhakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised as part of World AIDS Awareness Day on Thursday.
“Now a lot of people baulk at the HIV test because of fear of discrimination. Though they show infection symptoms, they don’t go for testing. Using the kit at home will identify the infection at an early stage, making it possible to begin treatment,” said Rama Pandian, Tamil Nadu Network of Positive People.
Taking part in the event organised by the health department, the Health Minister Dr C Vijaya Bhaskar said the number of HIV cases had come down as the three-year old figures showed. Tamil Nadu had done better than the country average, he added.
The HIV positive community also placed a proposal to extend Chief Minister’s Farmers Security Scheme (pension for farmers during the period of temporary inactivity because of HIV) to other groups too. The minister promised the proposal would be considered.