13th February, 2014 saw the inauguration of the Nodal ART Centre at the Darjeeling District Hospital by Smt. Asha Gurung, Sabhasad, Health, GTA in the presence of Joint Director, West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society, Shri Don Bosco Lepcha, Executive Director Health, GTA, Superintendent of District Hospital and many other dignitaries.
The Nodal ART has 7 staff including the Medical Director Dr. Norbu Sherpa. The physical infrastructure is in the ground floor of the District Hospital. The nodal centre will offer Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to clients in the Darjeeling Hills and also offer counselling and opportunistic infection treatments, testing facilities and outreach programmes including adherence follow-ups.
In the inaugural programme, it was stated that this had been in the pipeline and had not gone forward due to the agitation in the Hills. It was also mentioned that the centre has been given such preference as such centres are opened only if there are 300 plus clients which Darjeeling Town does not have. The need for reach in the Hills was taken into consideration while opening this centre.
Shanker Foundation welcomed the opening of the Nodal ART Centre which has been one of the many demands over the years. It looks forward to the efficient functioning of the centre and hopes more Link ART Centres will be opened to reach the sub-divisions as well as other testing infrastructure like CD4 are developed in the region.
