The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in a definite move to ensure continuous treatment of AIDS patients would be issuing computerised smart cards to them.
NACO Director General, Sujatha Rao, told PTI that this is a giant step to check the growing number of AIDS patients in the country and also ascertain that they are treated on a continuous basis.The entire case history of the patient can be got from the smart card and this would help the patient to get treated anywhere in the country.
Rao said that the smart cards would facilitate treatment for the AIDS patients even when they are on the move as they can approach any ART centre to get the prescribed medicines and thereby the continuity of the treatment is ensured.
The ART centres across the country provides free treatment for AIDS patients.
Doctors concerns were that in many instances, patients did not turn up for the treatment regularly. Hence to keep track of these patients the ART centres required the correct addresses of the patients and the smart cards may provide the best solution to the problem.
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