It has been 25 years since Humsafar Trust started a support group for gay men, transgenders and male sex workers for creating awareness about HIV and now the group opened country’s first HIV treatment centre for the LGBTQ community.
Based out of the trust’s office in Santacruz, Mumbai, the centre will give free counselling and provide Antiretroviral Therapy (ART). The therapy aims at treating the HIV infection and is recommended for everyone who is infected with the virus and delays the progression of the disease.
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Ashok Row Kavi, founder chairperson of the Humsafar Trust said that the centre is open for all and the clinic will serve as a one-stop solution where detection, counselling and treatment of HIV patients would be done.
Dr. Srikala Acharya of Mumbai District AIDS Control Society said that the number of HIV positive patients have decreased drastically over the past 20 years because of intervention by community-based groups. She further said that according to recent figures, out of 4,000 males, who have sex with men and are screened regularly by them, only 253 tested positive.