HIV surveillance

HIV surveillance:

In the year 1985 ICMR started screening of blood from high risk groups at National Institute of Virology, Pune and Christian Medical College, Vellor to determine if HIV was presented in India.

As the first case of HIV was detected in 1986 at Chennai, the surveillance activity was extended by establishing 62 surveillance centres and 9 referral centres in the country for identification of geographic spread of HIV and determination of major modes of transmission.

During 1993 a sentinel surveillance system was introduced with objective to identify trends in seropositivity in different groups. Initially 55 sentinel centres were established in 26 states / UTs. Later on in the year 1997, 115 additional sentinel sites were established to carry out first sentinel survey in the country during February - March 1998, with second round in the month of September - October 1998. The objective of the sentinel surveillance is to monitor the trends of the infection by annual cross-sectional survey of the risk groups in the same place over few years of unlinked anonymous serological testing procedures.

In this HIV testing is carried out without identification of name of sample collected for other purposes e.g. VDRL in STD clinics. In this way the positive person is not identified. At present 180 Sentinel Sites have been established to provide

information.

education,

communication

social mobilization.

This component includes activities aimed at the generation of awareness about HIV/AIDS and bringing about positive changes

In the behaviour, removing many misconceptions and ignorance through well-designed communication system can effectively carry out educating the public. This Includes mass media campaigns, social mobilization targeted interventions for high-risk behaviours, inter-sectoral collaboration, involvement of NGOs, training and research.