Over 600 people, mostly children, test HIV positive in Pakistan city
PAKISTAN said on Sunday over 600 people, most of them children, had tested HI V posit ive in a cit y in t he sout her n Sindh prov ince.
Concern grew after hundreds of people were a llegedly infected by a doctor using a conta minated sy ringe in Rato Dero cit y a nd surrounding v i l lages of Larkana district.
“Some 681 people, of which 537 were children from two to 12 years of age, had been tested positive for HIV until yesterday [Sat urday] i n Rato Dero,” specia l healt h adv iser Zafar Mirza told a press conference in Islamabad.
He said 21,375 people had been screened in Rato Dero, adding that the increase in the number of patients testing positive for HIV was “a matter of grave concern” for the government.
One cause being investigated by Pakista ni aut horit ies is t he use of “unsafe sy ringes” on patients.
Mi r z a s a id : “I n it ia l i nvest igat ion s revea l t hat used sy ringes are being repacked, which may not only grow significantly the number of HIV cases but a lso ot her diseases.”
The federal government is providing 50,000 HIV screening kits to Sindh.
‘Drastic measures’
Prov incia l hea lt h of f icia ls have a lso noted t hat patients are at particular risk of cont ract i ng disea ses or v i r uses at t hese clinics, where injections are of ten pushed as a primar y treatment option.
“The government will get to the bottom of t he outbrea k and f ully assist t he prov incia l government to prov ide treatment to all patients,” Mirza said, adding t hat a team of experts from t he World Health Organization was also scheduled to arrive soon to assist Pakistani authorities in ascertaining the cause of the HIV v ir us in t he area.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to unveil drastic measures to prevent the disease once we ascertain the cause of t he spread of disease,” he said.
Parents in the area fear their children’s futures have been irreparably harmed a f ter cont ract i ng HI V, especia l ly i n a country whose masses of rural poor have l it t le understa nding of t he disease or access to treatment.
Nisar Ahmed, the father of one of the af fected baby girls aged just one, said: “We are told to go to Larkana for medicine. I curse the doctor who has spread t his disease to ever y child.
“Four of the children of my village have already been diagnosed HIV positive.”
Pakistan was long considered a low prevalence country for HIV, but the disease is expanding at an alarming rate, particularly among intravenous drug users and sex workers.
With about 20,000 new HIV infections reported in 2017 alone, Pakistan currently has the second fastest growing HIV rates across Asia, according to the UN.
“According to some government reports, around 600,000 quack doctors are operating across the country and around 270,000 are practising in the province of Sindh,” according to UNAIDS.
Pakistan’s surging population also suffers t he addit iona l burden of hav ing insufficient access to quality healthcare following decades of under-investment by the state, leaving impoverished, rural communities especia lly v ulnerable to unqualified medical practitioners.