Nashik: If the data furnished by the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre — the only government clinic in the district to treat all HIV/AIDS patients — is anything to go by, then there is a declining trend of HIV/AIDS patients in the district.As per the data, even death cases of such patients are decreasing. Also, it is for the first time in the last 10 years, the number of HIV positive patients coming at the ART centre had dropped below 1,000.Sunil Thakur, head of the ART centre on the premises of Nashik civil hospital, said there is awareness among people due to which the number has reduced. “For the past many years, the government, health machineries are working hard to spread awareness. Lectures are being held continuously at the villages, schools and colleges,” he said.Most of the patients found living with HIV are from the lower socio-economic background and are found mainly in the age group of 20 to 24 years.Thakur said that with improved facilities at the centre a few years ago, there was a rise in number of people coming to get registered and start their treatment. However, in the fiscal year of 2017-18, only 998 new HIV patients came to the ART centre as against 1,153 in the previous year.With rising awareness about the best treatment that has been made available at the ART Centre, people are also coming at the HIV testing centres available at two hospitals, four sub-divisional hospitals, 24 rural hospitals apart from public health centres and urban health centres.Thakur said this year from March 2018 the viral load testing has also been started at the Nashik ART centre to check the gravity of the disease so that if the health of patients is not improving with the first line of treatment, the second line of treatment can be started.Meanwhile, the health machinery has even started to bring in HIV+ patients who had stopped their treatment mid-way.“The purpose was to bring the LFU (lost to follow up) patients under treatment as early as possible so that with proper treatment, their life span can be increased,” Thakur said.Medical experts at the ART centre said, “If diagnosed early and brought under treatment with proper ART treatment, HIV+ patients can live for more than 30 years. All the patients need to do is manage opportunistic infections from time to time which can be done by visiting the ART centres on a monthly basis.”For the convenience of patients, the health department has started 4 ART link centres in Manmad, Chandwad, Yeola and Niphad. A government health official said that over the years there has been a declining graph of detecting HIV+ patients. “The stigma attached to the disease is also fast vanishing, claimed medical officials,” he said.Meanwhile, the Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification test (CBNAAT) machine at the ART centre is also proving extremely helpful in accurate detection of tuberculosis among HIV positive patients as they are more vulnerable to contract TB.Over the years, the ART centre in Nashik have found approximately 15,000 HIV+ patients. Officials said the deaths were due to the concerned patients leaving hope and dropping their medication mid-way.Meanwhile, Ravindra Patil, president of Yash Foundation that works for the rehabilitation of HIV+ patients, said, “There is a possibility that a large number of patients take treatment in private hospitals. The figures of these patients are not available with the government department. If the private practitioners give their figures to the government department, the picture could be different. Still patients shy away from going to ART centre fearing that they could be noticed.”

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