Business Wire - November 15, 2008

KATHMANDU, Nepal--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Earlier this week, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest AIDS group in the US, and Nepal’s Ministry of Health, National Center for AIDS and STI Control (NCASC) dedicated a new ‘Center of Excellence’—a free antiretroviral AIDS treatment clinic at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku, Kathmandu, Nepal. The clinic, a partnership between AHF and NCASC, provides medical care and lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in Kathmandu.

AHF, which currently provides medical care and services to more than 85,000 individuals in 22 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia and operates nearly 50 free AIDS treatment clinics outside of the US, will provide and oversee the delivery of medical care and services at the Center of Excellence at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital; NCASC will ensure the supply of lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to the collaboration, provide national guidelines and offer other assistance to ensure success in the collaboration—which is already saving lives.

In June of this year, AHF and Nepal’s Ministry of Health signed the formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish the ‘Center of Excellence’ and set the parameters for the delivery of treatment, care and services at the facility.

“Both this new partnership and the state-of-the-art AIDS treatment facility in Kathmandu bring rays of hope to people living with HIV/AIDS throughout Nepal,” said Chinkholal Thangsing, MD, Chief, Asia Pacific Bureau for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “We are honored to collaborate with our esteemed colleagues in Kathmandu and from the Government of Nepal in this venture—a partnership which is already saving lives.”

Among the dignitaries participating in the formal dedication ceremony on Wednesday were Dr. Onta, Vice Chair of Nepal HIV/AIDS and STI Control Board (NCASC); Dr. R. Pant, Assistant Director, NCASC; Dr Saroj, Director of Sukraraj; Dr Chinkholal Thangsing, Asia Pacific Bureau Chief–AHF; Peter Reis, Vice President, AHF; dignitaries from the hospital and other government officials as well as representatives from UNAIDS, WHO, UNDP, UNODC, FHI, Care, Save the Children and many other international NGOs, National NGOs, Civil Society Groups and PLHA Groups.

Nepal has now officially become the sixth country under AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Asia Pacific Bureau and the 23^rd AHF country globally.

There are more than 120,000 people living with HIV and AIDS in Nepal. Among them it is estimated that more than 9,000 people are living in a more advanced stage of AIDS and are in dire need of ARV drugs—without which they are likely to perish within a few years’ time span. The HIV epidemic in Nepal is in the stage of concentrated epidemic (meaning the prevalence rate is consistently more than 5% in few sub groups in the society). The subgroups are primarily comprised of migrant populations from both western and eastern hilly areas, injecting drug users from the inner cities and the border areas, female sex workers and their clients along the highways and in the inner cities, and last but certainly not the least, the homosexual population and the prison population. These groups are also known as ‘Most at Risk’ groups. In the general population, HIV prevalence is said to be under 0.5% of the total population. Most of the HIV-infected people live in the remote villages; they are often geographically hard to reach with proper information packages let alone lifesaving antiretroviral treatment.

For more information, visit www.aidshealth.org