About UPSACS

Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (UPSACS) was formally registered in the Year 1999 as a para-statal agency. The governing board includes the Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) as the President, Secretary (Health) the Vice President and the Project Director of UPSACS as Member Secretary. In all districts, District AIDS Control Committees (DACC) were formed with the District Magistrate as President and the Chief Medical Officer as Member Secretary. The state program is headed by the Project Director, who is from the Indian Administrative Services. The Project Director is assisted by an Additional Project Director and supported by a team of technical personnel who manage the different program components of Sentinel Surveillance, Monitoring & Evaluation, Integrated Counseling and Testing Center (ICTC), Anti Retro-Viral Therapy (ART), Targeted Interventions (TIs), Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Management, Information, Education Communication (IEC), Care and Support, Blood Safety, and Finance.

UPSACS envisions a state where every person living with HIV has access to quality care and is treated with dignity. Effective prevention, care and support for HIV/AIDS is possible in an environment where human rights are respected and where those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS live a life without stigma and discrimination. UPSACS has taken measures to ensure that people living with HIV have equal access to quality health services by fostering close collaboration with NGOs, women’s self-help groups, other government departments, corporate/private sector, positive people’s networks and communities, working to improve access and accountability of the services. It stands committed to building an enabling environment wherein those infected and affected by HIV play a central role in all responses to the epidemic – at state, district and grassroots level.

We at UPSACS believe that people need to be aware, motivated, equipped and empowered with knowledge so that they can protect themselves from the impact of HIV. We confront a stark reality – HIV can happen to any of us. Our hope is that anyone can be saved from the infection with appropriate information on prevention and following effective prevention measures. The principles of GIPA (Greater Involvement of Persons living with HIV/AIDS) and Gender Equity are cross-cutting across all programmes. UPSACS is built on a foundation of care and support, and is committed to consistently fabricating strategic responses for combating HIV/AIDS situation in Uttar Pradesh.

As we are aware, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country accounting for 16.4 per cent of the country’s population. It is also the fourth largest state in geographical area covering 9% of the country’s geographical area. The presence of government health infrastructure is fairly extensive in our state but it is still inadequate in quality and quantity to meet the demands of the population served.

In the context of HIV/AIDS, Uttar Pradesh is a high vulnerable state with HIV prevalence of 0.09% among the general population. Although the prevalence in the pregnant women which is a proxy indicator of the prevalence in the general population has remained same at low level, HIV prevalence among the High Risk Groups has shown some decline yet continues to be high requiring a more focussed approach to check the spread of the virus.

Major risk factors includes unsafe sex and low condom use, injecting drug users, migration and mobility, men having sex with men, low status of women and widespread stigma. HIV prevalence appears to be higher in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, the larger towns and in some tourist places. Those from rural areas with a history of migration particularly to high prevalence cities like Mumbai and Gujarat are found to have higher HIV-positivity rates in Uttar Pradesh. Now I would like to highlight the different services provided by the UPSACS. We have peripheral units like ICTC (Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres), STI Clinics(Suraksha Clinics) ,ART(Anti Retroviral Therapy) Centres, NGO- TI (Targeted intervention) at the district level with Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society at the state level and NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation) at the national level. During the last year 2010-11 the key achievements were that the program has been de-centralized to a certain extent by establishing DAPCUs in five high prevalent districts.