HIV test for babies to start early

In order to diagnose HIV early in newborns, the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) has decided to launch a programme. Earlier, NACO used to diagnose the HIV status after the baby had turned four months old. However, the new programme would enable them to check the baby when it would be just one month old. The main motive of early diagnosis would be detection of the virus at an early stage to prevent its spread in babies.
Talking to TOI, AIDS district project manager Geetika said NACO had been running an HIV diagnosis programme among newborns to detect the presence of HIV virus among children of HIV-infected mothers. ''Now we'll be able to detect the virus when the baby is just one month hold, thus increasing the chances of preventing AIDS,'' she added.
According to the prevention programme, HIV-infected women are given medicine during their pregnancy and a dose is given to the newborn at the time of birth.
However, other tests are conducted to confirm the presence of HIV infection in the child as well as the mother, said she.
She said they would collect samples from Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) at various hospitals in Ludhiana and send them to the Khanna centre for testing, adding the main motive is to know the number children suffering from HIV at early stage and start medication.