The existing equipment at the hospital has been out of order for three months while another set donated by an American institution has been languishing in Kathmandu, also for three months. [break]CD4 count is used to examine the immunity level of patients before starting them on antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART is started if the count, which is 1,000 for a healthy person, falls below 350.
“CD4 count has to be done periodically even after the start of ART. Patients here are suffering for lack of equipment,” Coordinator of the District AIDS Coordination Committee Ram Hari Neupane said. Bharatpur Hospital is providing ART services to 783 patients and the treatment of over 50 of them has been affected by the equipment breakdown.
The government had provided the CD4 count equipment when the hospital started ART services three years ago. The hospital later felt the need for another set and the AIDS Health Care Foundation (AHF), an American institute, had expressed its commitment to providing one. “AHF agreed to provide the equipment after the hospital chief and myself made a request to the financial head of AHF when she visited the hospital,” Neupane said.
AHF sent three sets of equipment to Nepal following the request and they are now at the National Center for Aids and STD Control (NCASC) in Kathmandu. “We have repeatedly requested NCASC to send us the equipment meant for us, but to no avail. We are facing problems as the equipment at the hospital here is out of order,” Neupane added.
The CD4 count service, provided for free at the hospital, costs Rs 4,000 at private centers as the equipment is priced at around Rs 10 million. The service is not available in the districts and patients needing it have to travel to Kathmandu. “Things were quite different when the equipment was functional. Our friends are now facing problems travelling to Kathmandu,” said Dikshya Rimal, chairman of an association of the HIV-infected in Chitwan.
Neupane said Director of NCASC Keshav Kumar Rai is citing lack of trainers to help technicians operate the equipment as the reason for not sending it over to Chitwan.
Related story
UML Karnali Convention: Vandalism outside vote counting station
