Mumbai: The Humsafar Trust inaugurated India's first HIV treatment centre. The centre and the holistic clinic is for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. The centre will provide free counselling and provide Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART).

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According to the reports of Hindustan Times, ART is the use of HIV medicines to treat the infection and it is recommended for everyone who is infected with the virus. This also delays the progression of the disease. 

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The founder chairperson of the Humsafar Trust, Ashok Row Kavi said that the centre will be open for all. He further mentioned that until now they would get testing done for the community members at the centre and if the test is positive they will be sent to Sion hospital. He further added that,  But there has been a huge dropout at this stage because of how the community is perceived outside and a lot of people did not take further treatments. 

The clinic will be a one-stop centre facilitating pre-counselling detection, counselling, and treatment of HIV patients.” Kavi added.

Srikala Acharya of Mumbai District AIDS Control Society told HT that the number of HIV patients have gone drastically low over the last 20 years due to the intervention of community-based groups.