Kathmandu, January 12:

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) today launched free Anti-Retroviral Therapy for HIV/AIDS patients from the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH).

Fifty patients availed themselves of the treatment. Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV was also launched.

Assistant minister for health, Nikshya SJB Rana, said the government was committed to checking the transmission of HIV/AIDS by scaling up the Anti-Retroviral Therapy treatment programme and PMTCT in major hospitals in the country gradually.