The case presented here showcases the consistent effort of the Community Volunteer to ensure that the TB notified patients are tested at ICTCs for HIV. The case presented is from Banka district. As per the guidelines it is mandatory that all the positive notified TB cases are reported to the ICTC centre for HIV tests. However, it was found that many patients don’t prefer to visits these centres and conduct the HIV tests either because of unawareness or because of other reason’s.
The project staff with the support of Govt officials visited the clinic and met the patients to ensure that they go for the HIV tests. Initially there were some challenges of non-availability of HIV kits in the ICTC centres. But later with the support from the project staff and the Govt officials the HIV kits were made available at the ICTC centres. After the availability of the kits the positive TB notified patients were tested for HIV. After the project intervention it was found that 93% of the positive TB cases were tested for HIV/ICTC.
From Jan’16 to Dec’17 ,638 TB positive cases were notified, out of which 598 cases were tested for HIV at ICTC centres. Listed below are the list of patients undergoing HIV tests: