Correspondent
IMPHAL, JULY 27
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] double bench of High Court of Manipur comprising Chief Justice LK Mohapatra and Justice N Kotiswar Singh directed Manipur government to provide clinical investigation for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) at all the Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres in Manipur ‘free of cost’ like other states within three months.
The ruling was passed in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Manipur based NGO-Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE) on the issue, on July 23, conveys legal counsel Kh Tarun of CoNE while speaking to media here on Sunday. The court also disposed off the PIL filed by CoNE.To monitor the treatment progress, the clinical investigations for PLHIV who are assessing ART are mandatory as per treatment guideline of National AIDS Control Society. However unlike other states of the country, the clinical investigations which annually cost around Rs 800-900 in government hospitals against Rs 3000 plus in the private diagnostic centres are charged in Manipur.
As majority of PLHIV are below poverty line could not afford such clinical investigations, it forced many PLHIVs to drop out from the ART centres. Thus it creates a new alarming situation in the further implementation of the HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in the region.
”Considering the issue seriously, we’ve been taking up many initiatives to avail free of cost facilities for clinical investigation to improve quality of treatment among PLHIVs like the rest of the country. However there is no positive response from any quarters,” says President CoNE RK Nalinikanta. “But the recent judgment will give a huge relieve for PLHIV in Manipur as it will help many of them who are yet to attend ART centres due to lack of financial support.”
Around 11,673 PLHIV have initiated ART which is less than 40 percent of the total PLHIV (19,629) registered in Manipur’s ART centres as of August 2012, according to CoNE functionary. Officially the total number of HIV positive in Manipur is 43,882 as on September last year.
CoNE’s legal counsel Kh Tarun also admitted that they will go for an appeal for the same on behalf of the PLHIV in Manipur in case the July 23 directive is not implemented within the said time frame.
