OKHALDHUNGA: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) centre was established at District Hospital in Okhaldhunga on Wednesday.

With the initiative of District Health Office, the ART centre was established to treat HIV-infected persons.

District Health Chief Gyan Bahadur Basnet inaugurated the centre amid a programme organised in the district hospital on Wednesday.

It is the 61st ART centre established in the district.

National AIDS and Sexual Disease Control centre informed that the centre would provide antiretroviral medicine free of cost.

Ashok Shrestha, Public Health Officer of National AIDS and Sexual Disease Control Centre, had handed over necessary medicine to 20 HIV-infected persons at the centre. “HIV patients of the area will benefit much from the centre,” he said.

As many as seven HIV-infected persons have been receiving treatment in Okhaldhunga.

It has been reported that the HIV-infected will no longer have to reach Kathmandu and other cities for treatment with the centre’s establishment in the district.

Prior to the centre’s establishment, local patients had no option but to reach Dharan and Kathmandu for health check-up.