Acute shortage of HIV testing kits in Karnataka hits patients hard

Karnataka facing HIV test kit shortage; KSAPS procuring 3 lakh kits & expecting 6 lakh from NACO in 1 week. Counsellors report patients angry & unable to trace if tested positive. DCs, CEOs, KSAPS, NHM & ARS asked to procure kits locally using funds.

Following an acute shortage of HIV test kit 1 and Whole Blood Finger Prick test kit (HIV test kit 4) in the State, testing has almost come to a standstill in the government-run Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) in several districts. A few centres that have the test kits are testing only emergency and high-risk cases for the last one month.

The State has 470 stand-alone ICTCs and 2,940 functional ICTCs.  Counsellors and staff at these ICTCs confirmed to The Hindu that they had to face the wrath of patients for sending them back without testing. As of Wednesday, limited stocks of the test kits were reported from Bagalkot, Dakshina Kannada, Chikmagaluru, Vijayapura, Hubbali-Dharwad, Ramanagara, Yadgir and Koppal districts. 

“We are just collecting the serum samples and asking the patients to come back for the reports. Many patients are upset and shout at us. Also, there are chances of them not coming back for the reports and it is difficult for us to trace them if they are tested positive,” said a counsellor from Ramanagara.

“The availability of Kit 1 is vital, as the result of this test is the basis for further investigations,” said another counsellor from Mandya.

Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) officials attributed the shortage to delay in supply of the kits from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). They said that NACO had written to all AIDS Prevention Societies in the country in the last week of June asking them to make local procurement for a period of three to six months.

Following this, State Health Commissioner Randeep D., wrote to all Deputy Commissioners, Chief Executive Officers of Zilla Panchayats, KSAPS Project Director, Mission Director of National Health Mission and, administrative heads of all government health facilities to procure the kits locally using Arogya Raksha Samithi (ARS), NHM and National Free Drugs Service (NFDS) funds. He has asked them to procure stocks for two months under provisions of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTTP) Act, 1999.

“While District Hospitals can procure 1,500 test kits a month, Taluk Hospitals can procure 500 kits, CHCs 150 kits and PHCs 100 kits a month. The current market price of the test kit 1 and kit 4 is ₹ 17,” stated the letter. Each kit can be used to test 50 to 90 people depending on the brand.