Seven new HIV cases were detected on Tuesday in Ratodero. So far, 707 such cases have been detected from the tehsil. However, no cases have been detected at Rural Health Centers of Banguldero and Naundero. Out of the 707 HIV positive cases, 580 are children.
Four more cases of HIV were also reported from Shikarpur on Tuesday. As per details, 356 people were screened for the potentially life-threatening condition of HIV in Shikarpur’s village of Dakhan, from which four were tested positive. With the latest inclusion of four more HIV patients, the number of affected people in the district Shikarpur has jumped to 36.
A delegation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) reached Karachi on Tuesday to visit the areas affected by the HIV outbreak. Sindh Health Director General Dr Masood Solangi received the 12-member team at Karachi Airport. The team comprises experts from WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS and Centre for Disease Control (CDC). American, British, German, Swiss, Italian, Canadian, Thai, Lebanese, Ethiopian and Pakistan experts will gather information from Sindh Health Department. The team will also conduct interviews of the patients and their family members in Ratodero. The WHO experts will stay in Karachi. They will meet the officials of the Health Department and other departments. Health Minister of Sindh Dr Azra Pechuho, the Health secretary and other Health department officials will also accompany the WHO team. Special Assistant to Prime Minister for National Health Dr Zafar Mirza had written a letter to the WHO and requested for immediately sending a team of experts to Pakistan to visit the areas affected by the HIV epidemic. An inspection team of WHO of the HIV-affected areas after an outbreak of HIV in the region. The WHO team will inquire into the HIV epidemic in Ratodero, the most affected city in the area.
According to health officials, HIV has been confirmed in 700 people in Ratodero including 576 children and 124 adults. Pakistan had also requested the WHO to provide diagnostic kits for HIV Aids.
The prime minister’s aide on national health in his letter asked the WHO to immediately provide 50,000 HIV diagnostic kits for the crisis areas adding that the HIV cases have reached to epidemic level in Larkana district.
Separately, Dr Aziz Soomro, a health expert, met with former US President Bill Clinton and his spouse Hillary Clinton in New York and urged them for support in control of HIV cases in Larkana’s Ratodero taluka and its nearby villages. The Clinton Foundation helps HIV/AIDS patients across the world. Dr Soomro did his MBBS from Chandka Medical College, Larkana, and is settled in USA. He is working as pediatrician there and is worried about the outbreak of HIV cases in his home district and wants to help. He has also been arranging online lectures at Chandka Children Hospital of Larkana, two of which have so far been delivered by HIV/AIDS experts of Brown University.
