The spread of HIV/AIDS from the high risk groups to general population and from initial hot spots to new areas in India underlines the need for a comprehensive National AIDS Control Policy to effectively control the epidemic in the country.
The HIV/AIDS policies and guidelines in India view the epidemic as a developmental problem rather than a mere public health issue. It is therefore necessary that NACP-III is integrated with various development programmes like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme and the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). The focus of all these programmes is prevention of HIV transmission.
Among the preventive services are awareness generation, condom promotion, prevention of parent to child transmission, increasing ICTC services, promotion of voluntary blood donation and access to safe blood. The policies also have guidelines on targeted Interventions (TIs) for high risk groups like injecting drug users (IDUs), men having sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSWs) etc.
Apart from this, policies have extensive guidelines on the management of common opportunistic infections, malignancies among adult/adolescent PLHA and operational guidelines for ART centres to standardise ART services across the country. The National Policy on Blood Banks ensures adequate supply of safe blood and blood components.
For other important guidelines given under the policy
