Imphal, September 06: Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS) has dubbed the charges of USER Manipur that it deducts 10 to 15 percent of the fund released to the NGOs as baseless and unfounded.

Addressing a press conference in this connection at his office chamber this afternoon, Project Director of MACS Dr TR Kom clarified that the funds are released to the NGOs in the form of cheques and the same are encashed by the NGOs themselves.

So there is no question of interference from MACS.

As to the allegation of not providing medicines for Opportunistic Infections (OIs) at the Drop-in Centres (DICs), Deputy Director of MACS Dr Premchand, who was also present during the press conference pointed out that as there is no provisions for supplying medicines for OIs in the Drop-in Centres and TI (Targeted Intervention Centres) in the guidelines for implementation of the National AIDS Control Programme, MACS can do nothing in this regard.

The main reason for not having such provisions in the guidlines is that there are no doctors at these Centres and medicines for IOs are meant for preventiing OIs in HIV positive patients and should be taken under the prescription of an expert doctor, he explained.

Personnel who are manning the DICs or TICs cannot administer the IO medicines to the HIV patients.

If any patient is suffering from IOs then they should be brought to the ART centres for necessary treatment including test for CD4 count, Dr Premchand conveyed.

In connection with the issue of including Oral Substitution Therapy in the treatment regimen, Dr Pemchand explained that the Oral Substitution Therapy is being implemented as a pilot project in the country including Manipur by NACO under sponsorship of the Department for International Development (DIFD).

The pilot poject will cover only 30 centres.

So, whether it would inducted as a part of the treatment regimen for patients at the time of implementation of National AIDS Control Programme Phase-III or not depends on the guidelines to be given by NACO.

Dr TR Kom said that is no shortage of drugs and other medicines in the ART centres of the State.

There is enough drugs/medicines in stock, and even today MACS received more ARV drugs.

He assured that the pending fund for three months under the NACP Phase-II would be released soon while for the Phase-III the fund would be released by NACO only after analysing the evaluation report on the performance of the NGOs.

To the demand for making the evaluation report available to the NGOs, Dr TR Kom said in accordance to the guidelines given by NACO, the evaluation report cannot be made public without its permission.

So if any of the NGOs want to have access to the report, then they should approach NACO.

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