Maulana Azad Medical College ::

INTRODUCTION

               Even though globally HIV epidemic is stabilizing, India continues to be in the category of concentrated epidemic. The need for HIV clinical services continues to grow keeping in mind the number of AIDS cases along with the stigma and discrimination.

               Currently, in India there are 211 Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Centres and 4987 Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres and 254 Community Care Centres (CCC). The number of Drop in Centres has increased from 84 in 2007 to 204 in 2009. It is planned to have a total of 350 CCC across the country by 2012. A total of 300 Link ART centres have been sanctioned.

               According to NACO estimates, the number of persons tested in these centres increased from 73.7 lakhs in 2007 to102 lakhs in 2008-09. The total number of HIV positive people currently on ART is 217781. In the same period 24,320 HIVTB co-infected patients were diagnosed. ICTCs also provide PPTCT services to pregnant women. 21,483 pregnant women were found to be HIV positive and a total of 10,494 mother-baby pairs were given prophylaxis dose of Nevirapine. While 47,784 Children Living with HIV AIDS (CLHAs) have been ever registered, 14,303 CLHAs were receiving free ART as on March 2009.

               The Roll out of Second line ART began from January 2008, and initially started on a pilot basis, it was expanded to 10 centres of excellence in January 2009. During (2008-09) 8500 new Condom Vending Machines have been installed taking the total number to 24,625. During 2008-09, socially marketed condom off-take of 83.53 Crore pieces and outlet reach of 12 lakhs were achieved. Voluntary blood donation increased from 56.4% in July 2007 to 61.7 in March 2009 (www.nacoonline.org., March 2009)

               To address the need for HIV Prevention, control and care of PLHAs, a group of trained health professionals equipped to take care of HIV patients is required. However for most practicing doctors today, HIV medicine was not a part of the curriculum at the time of their training. Also, knowledge and practices in this field are steadily changing requiring constant updating. Currently there are very few training programmes suited to the needs of practicing doctors for upgrading their knowledge and skills in HIV care.

               One year Fellowship in HIV Medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and Associated Hospitals, New Delhi is the response to address these deficiencies. Keeping in mind the time constraints of practicing doctors, this course consists of distance education, projects at the candidates’ organization and 6 weeks of contact at the center, in four short parts. Our approach is to select doctors who are already interested and involved in HIV care, upgrade their knowledge and skills in this field and to work with them to improve the capacity of their hospitals to care for HIV affected patients.

               MAMC and Associated hospitals have been engaged in HIV/AIDS care since 1989. The institution has been conducting training courses in HIV/AIDS since 1992. MAMC has been a Regional Center for Counseling in HIV /AIDS. The institution is providing outdoor, indoor and counseling services including laboratory support for HIV and opportunistic infections. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic was established at L.N hospital, MAMC on first April 2004 under 3 by 5 initiative and over 2000 patients have been enrolled for ART. The institution imparts HIV/AIDS training in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The institution has been recognized as training centre for Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). The Microbiology department is a regional sentinel surveillance center for HIV/AIDS. The institution is also a training centre for standardized guidelines of RTIs/ STIs. The institution has been involved in conducting community based and hospital based research for HIV/AIDS and STDs in collaboration with NACO, WHO, UNFPA, Population Council etc. Many postgraduate and PhD students are undertaking research work in the area of HIV/AIDS.

Scope of the Training Course

To enable the participants to improve their knowledge and skills in HIV care
To enable the participants to have practical development of an accessible and high quality HIV clinical services in their own health care setting
To provide the participants with better future opportunities in HIV care

EDUCATIONAL APPROACH

By a judicious combination of contact programmes, distance courses and project work, the course is designed to allow participants to continue their regular work and learn within the context of their own practice. Detailed work plans will be designed for each participant, according to his or her own time constraints and work schedules. The faculty will guide and support the participants through regular e-mail and telephonic contact. Learning resources for the project will be provided as part of the training.

The Objectives of the Training Course

(i) To improve the health care of HIV individuals and those suffering from opportunistic infections.
(ii) To enhance the skills of health care workers in HIV care.
(iii) To strengthen the skills of candidates to deal with special groups viz., IDUs, MSMs, Transgenders etc.
(iv) To make the participants well versed with objectives of NACP III.

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