Karnataka is going to launch a ‘Treat All Policy’ on Wednesday considering just less than half of HIV patients are registered with anti retroviral therapy (ART) and receiving treatment. With the new policy at place, an additional 20,000 patients will be eligible for ART.
Karnataka is among the eight high-prevalence states for HIV in the nation with 64 ART and 196 Link ART Centres (LAC). While 3,05,973 patients are registered in ART/LAC centers, only 1,41,364 patients are taking regular ART at present.
ART is provided by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to patients with a CD4 count below 500.
While ‘Pre ART lost to follow up’ means that a patient who registered in an ART centre did not follow up, ‘ART Lost to follow up’ is when a patient who started ART did not come for over three months.
