High Court notice on plea seeking HIV test kits in Delhi hospitals

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued <g data-gr-id="16">notice</g> to the central and city governments on a plea seeking uninterrupted supply of HIV testing kits in government hospitals.

A division Bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw sought responses from the union health ministry, the Delhi government’s health department and the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) on the petition which also sought an inquiry into the disruption in supply of testing kits. The high court posted the matter for July 22.

The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a transgender, Jai Prakash, sought directions for the central and city governments to provide “CD4 testing kits and viral load testing kits” in all the hospitals in Delhi (for common people in general and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and sex workers in particular).

The petition contended that there has been a shortage of HIV testing kits at government hospitals here for over a year. It claimed that the only Centre for viral load tests at the Maulana Azad Medical College was not functioning currently “due to non-availability of testing kits”.

Apart from catering to patients from the Capital, the Centre was also responsible for conducting tests for patients from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other states. As a result, people living with HIV (PLHIV), for whom the first line of treatment was failing, cannot access the next step of the treatment protocol by getting a viral test done to determine whether they require be starting on the second line of treatment of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) drugs, saying the plea filed through advocate Ambalika Roy.