Laboratory Services Division

Universal and routine access to quality assured HIV related laboratory services are made available through the activities of Laboratory Services Division. It is recognized that work related to laboratory services are not confined to HIV testing, but are overarching and have an impact on other interventions included under prevention, care, support and treatment, STI management, procurement and supply chain management. Emphasis on quality assured laboratory service delivery is important to the success of National AIDS and STD Control Programme (NACP).
To ensure quality of HIV testing under the NACP, NACO has an External Quality Assessment (EQA) Programme administered to all HIV testing laboratories. The HIV testing laboratories are arranged in a tiered manner with apex laboratory (ICMR-NITVAR, Pune). 13 National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) and 117 State Reference Laboratories (SRLs) form the two subsequent tiers of the laboratory framework and are involved in supervision of testing in all peripheral testing centers (HCTS).

There are more than 400 CD4 testing laboratories, eight Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) laboratories for testing of infant and children less than 18 months of age, and 77 viral load testing laboratories under the NACO umbrella which are being are supervised by the Laboratory Services Division.

Major activities undertaken by Laboratory Services Division are but not limited to:

• Routine HIV-1 Viral Load testing for to monitor suppression of HIV-1 viral load in PLHIVs initiated on Anti- Retroviral Treatment and the need to switch to second-line drugs
• CD4 testing to know the baseline immune status of the infected individual, as a marker of treatment failure especially in case of HIV 2, to monitor the likely emergence of opportunistic infections (OI), to initiate prophylaxis for OIs, and as a measure of disease progression
• EID testing to diagnose HIV-1 infection in infants and children aged <18 months.
• Framing of Quality Management System guidelines and other laboratory guidelines
• Accreditation of laboratories as per ISO 15189
• Establishing and improving Quality Management Systems at HIV Counselling and Testing Centres (HCTS)
• External Quality Assessment for all HIV testing laboratories under NACP
• Consortium for ensuring kit Quality under NACP
• Training of laboratory personnel.
• Testing Services in National Programme on Early Infant/child less than 18 months Diagnosis.