LARKANA: During he sees to the central prison here on Friday, District and Periods Judge Abdul Naeem Memon ordered the jail officers to quickly make preparations for the blood verification of prisoners for HIV/AIDS. He also requested the medical officer ( MO ) concerned about conducting HIV/AIDS tests of the prisoners. The doctor said to the period’s judge that the healthcare superintendent of Chandka Medical College Hospital ( CMCH ) and the district health officer ( DHO ) of Larkana were approached and asked for providing kits to carry out the required blood tests. But the prison did not receive the needed kits, he declared.
This data irked the judge and he summoned the DHO on Saturday to the courtroom . 1 dies as HIV cases increase to 733. As many as 5 new HIV positive cases emerged out of the 225 screened at the camp in Ratodero on Friday which raised the overall HIV positive cases to 733, PPI adds. Out of these 733 cases, 598 are infants and 135 adults and so far 25, 433 people out of general population had been tested in Ratodero since April 25, 2019. However, no case was detected at the verification camps of Banguldero and Naudero where 125 people were screened.
A five-year-old boy died of AIDS in the village of Ghulam Hussain Hakro. Meanwhile, the WHO group headed by Oliver Morgan visited the Taluka Headquarter Hospital ( THQ ) in Ratodero, met the technicians working at the blood verification camps and inquired about the test methods. They were astonished at the manual way of the blood verification. The group also visited the ART Centre in Larkana where they also expressed their anger and dissatisfaction as there was no waiting room for the affected patients and entry information was not being made properly.
They requested as to why infants were sent to the civil hospital for checks which is far away from the center. They also asked as to why patients of Ratodero were coming to Larkana for getting medicines; why so far CD-4 machine had not been provided at Ratodero. They declared patients should be given all required facilities under 1 roof. On the other hand, this reporter has learned that experts have been alert that Larkana has all the ingredients of an exploding HIV epidemic in the future.
The Journal of Pakistan Medical Association ( JPMA ) has been publishing various articles over the years, chronicling the spread of AIDS/HIV in Pakistan. Experts had been sounding alarmed bells as earlier as 2014. It had been written that Larkana, a small city of over half a million population, has surpassed Karachi, a metropolis of almost 20 million persons, in dangerous exercise. The 1st leading outbreak of HIV in Pakistan occurred in 2003 among persons who injected drugs in Larkana. At that time, a survey revealed that 17 out of 175 such people were confirmed HIV positive.
The population welfare division estimates that in 2010 the entire population of the district was around 1 .4 million and that of Larkana city 539, 075. Larkana came into the HIV limelight in June 2003 when the 1st outbreak of HIV among people obtaining medicines through injections was reported in which 17 out of the 175 were confirmed positive. By 2016, another outbreak was reported in Larkana. This time 56 dialysis patients were among the patients in Chandka Medical College Hospital’s dialysis center. The National AIDS Control Programme did its own investigation. Dialysis sufferers were screened utilizing the HIV rapid test kits ( ImuMedOne Step Diagnostic Test).
Injection drug users ( IDUs ) and commercial sex workers are the high-risk groups. The Sindh AIDS Control Programme ( SACP ) started working on prevention and control of HIV infection in Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur in 2006. The clientele of sex workers was unmarried or married men, migrant workers, and long-distance truck drivers living away from home.