The Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART) centre at Sassoon Hospital has a total of 5,000 patients on its rolls since the last three years. However, with ART centres being set up at civil hospitals in Ahmednagar, Satara and Kolhapur, the load has come down.

"Now with YCM Hospital setting up an ART centre from July 26, at least 500-600 patients staying in and around Pimpri-Chinchwad need no longer come to Sassoon General hospital," says Dr D B Kadam, head of the Department of Medicine, Sassoon hospital.

At present, there are a total of 3,991 HIV patients on anti retroviral treatment.

When contacted, Dr R R Iyer, medical director, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), said the ART centre being set up at the YCM Hospital was part of a public-private partnership project.He pointed out that the lacuna was always felt in the PCMC area when patients, who got their blood tested at the Voluntary Counselling Testing Centres, could not avail of treatment in the adjoining area if they were found to be positive with the HIV virus.

Now, as part of the public-private partnership, Bajaj Auto Limited, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and PCMC will set up an ART centre. Iyer said that Bajaj Auto Ltd has already given the machine to test the CD-4 count of the HIV patient and ART drugs are provided by NACO."We have sent our officials for training to Aurangabad and once they return, the ART centre will be fully functional," Iyer said. "There are an approximate 2,300 people living with HIV in the PCMC areas," says Iyer who quoted the statistics provided by Sassoon Hospital.