Bhopal:
Three more antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres for HIV patients would be set up soon at Burhanpur, Neemuch and Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh. A proposal to this effect has been approved in principle by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) recently, officials said on Monday.
The officials said that they had sent a proposal to NACO for setting up of five ART centres in the state, but it agreed for three. At present, there are 10 ART centres in the state.
A total of 19,530 HIV patients are registered in the ART centres of the state and out of them 6,864 patients are getting treated at these facilities, officials said.
Earlier, these centres operated only from medical colleges but in view of increasing number of HIV patients, more ART centres were allowed.
An ART centre is opened in a district where number of HIV positive patients in a year is more than 150 or if there is no ART center in a stretch of 60 km.
According to experts, HIV patients can have their life span extended by getting proper treatment at the ART centres.