Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said on Saturday that the World Health Organisation (WHO) team currently visiting Larkana had not submitted a final report.
She was talking to reporters at Darbar Hall after presiding over a meeting held in connection with HIV outbreak in Ratodero and the progress made so far.
“Medicines for HIV positive children are being brought from other sources. The first treatment of those affected children will be made who are also suffering from other diseases such as stomach and lungs apart from HIV,” she said.
She said that the WHO team had sought $1.3 million from Global Fund for dealing with the situation. “On the ground level, we are doing our job ourselves. UNICEF is helping us in establishing a treatment centre at Ratodero, pediatric ward and women centre in Larkana. In a short span of time, we have screened over 26,000 people,” she said.
“We have also made the Health Department and Sindh AIDS Control Programme (SACP) functional. Lady health workers have been assigned duties for treatment of HIV positive children,” she said.
She hoped that medicines and screening kits would soon be received from Global Fund. “We need more kits as screening is required during treatment as well. Within the next few days, medicines will be given to the affected people of HIV for which supply order has already been placed,” she said.
She said that Global Fund had earlier supplied drugs for treating 300 children of the province for an entire year. “However, the sudden outbreak in Ratodero has made the entire situation complicated. Resultantly, there is now a shortage of drugs,” she said. She said that some HIV positive children were also suffering from other diseases.
Dr Azra said that 240 out of 614 HIV positive children had been provided medicines so far.
She said that an endowment fund was being established for the HIV children. “A total of Rs 1 billion will be reserved in the next budget for treating the disease,” she said.
She denied the reports that she was proceeding on leave, stating that she would only be availing one-week leave next month.
She inaugurated a Children’s ICU Ward at Chandka Children Hospital. Two ventilators were brought from Jacobabad for the ICU. Five ventilators procured in 2013 had not been installed due to unavailability of trained operators.
In the surgical ICU located in Teaching Block of Chandka Medical College Hospital, six out of 10 ventilators are still dysfunctional.
The meeting was attended by 12 members of the WHO team, Special Health Secretary Hafeez Abbasi, Commissioner Saleem Raza Khuhro, SACP Manager Dr Sikandar Memon, DHO Dr Abdul Rahman Baloch, Chandka Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Abdul Sattar Shaikh and others.
Official sources said that Dr Oliver Morgan, a WHO team member, presented his preliminary report in the meeting.
