Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centre

Incharge:     Dr. Upasna Agarwal, Head, Department of (Internal Medicine)

 Staff:

 Under the supervision of the in-charge, the ART centre is being run by a dedicated team:

 -                          Dr Lalita Sharma, Senior Medical Officer

-                           Ms Suman Aman Mary, Staff Nurse

-                           Ms. Jyoti Sharma, ,Counselor

-                           Mr. Arjun Kumar, Data Manager

-                           Mr. Satpal, Laboratory Technician

-                           Mr. Vinit Kumar, Pharmacist

-                           Mrs. Bhagwati Devi, Community Care Coordinator

 Activities:

• Treatment of HIV infected persons with provision of free life long supply of antiretroviral drugs.

• Expert management of HIV-TB cases by trained physicians in this field

• Diagnosis and management of other opportunistic infections

• Care of HIV patients not on ART (Pre-ART care)

• Counseling - High quality counseling is given by trained counselor.

-         Treatment preparation and Adherence counseling

-         Family counseling

• Free CD4 testing

• In patient admission facility.

• ICU care of serious patients.

• Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP)

• Linkages with NGO

• Research and training in the field of HIV-TB

On-going Research Projects:

• A study on effectiveness and feasibility of TB preventive therapy for adults living with HIV in India (NACO approved multi-centric trial)

• Randomized controlled trial of efficacy and safety of daily, part daily and thrice weekly intermittent ATT drug regimen in HIV seropositive patients with PTB (NACO approved multi-centric trial)

• Cytological profile of peripheral lymph node aspirates and body fluids (pleural/ ascetic) and its correlation with CD4 cell counts in patients of HIV and TB.

• Pilot study for isolation and identification of Mycobacterium avium in HIV infected patients.

• Molecular epidemiology and genetic characterization of M.tb from HIV sero-negative and seropositive patients.

Publications:

• Agarwal U, Kumar A, Behera D, French  M, Price P. Tuberculosis associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome in patients infected with HIV: meningitis a potentially life threatening manifestation. AIDS Research and Therapy. (2012), 9:17 doi:10.1186/1742-6405-9-17.

• Price P, Haddow LJ , Affandi J, Agarwal U , Easterbrook PJ, Elliott J et al . Plasma levels of Vitamin d in HIV patients initiating antiretroviral therapy do not predict immune restoration disease associated with mycobacterium tuberculosis. AIDS Res and human retroviruses.(2012); 28, 1- 4.

• Sumatoh HR, Oliver BJ, Kumar M, Elliott JH, Vonthanak S, Vun MC, Singh S, Agarwal U,  Kumar A , Tan HV, Kamarulzaman A, Yunihastuti E, Saraswati H and Price P.. Mycobacterial antibody levels and immune restoration disease in HIV patients treated in South East Asia. Biomarkers Med.(2011); 5(6),847-853.

• Agarwal U, Kumar A, Behera D. Profile of HIV Associated Tuberculosis at a Tertiary Institute in Setting of Free Anti-Retroviral Therapy.J. Assc.Phy of India (2009).59,685-690.

•  Price P, Murdoch D, Agarwal U,  Lewin SR, Elliott JH , French MF. Immune Restoration Diseases Reflect Diverse Immunopathological Mechanisms. 2009. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 22 (4), 651-663