LARKANA, Dec 2: Thirteen more positive cases of AIDS have been detected in Larkana, raising the number to 60 in the district.

The management of the Community Development Network Forum, Larkana, which has set up a drop-in-centre here, referred around 22 cases of heroin addicts to the surveillance centre at the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, for carrying out their blood tests.

The chairman, Community Development Network Forum, Larkana, Faiz Mohammed Bhangar, told this correspondent on Tuesday that, so far, out of 22 cases, nine had been reported to be AIDS positive.

He said that an NGO, Roshni, in Lahore had refused to accept more cases of AIDS from Larkana which had become problematic for the local NGOs working for the rehabilitation of such cases.

On being contacted, Mohammed Panjal Sangi, the chairman, Mehran Welfare Trust, said that only four cases of heroin addicts were sent to the local centre for blood tests, and added that he had not received any report from the laboratory as yet.

However, an unimpeachable source in the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, confirmed that 13 new AIDS cases had been discovered in Larkana.

He said that the majority of these patients was unmarried, and added that they hailed from different parts of Larkana.

He said that the positive blood samples had been referred to the provincial AIDS control programme, Karachi, for further confirmation, and added that the managers at the provincial headquarters were pressing not to divulge new cases.

A source in the medical superintendent’s office at the Chandka Medical College Hospital said that a doctor from the department concerned had been asked to personally collect the results from the Karachi centre.

The chairman of the Community Development Network Forum said that one person inflicted with HIV positive was from Balochistan.

The district Nazim, Larkana, Khursheed Ahmed Junejo, said that the more you test the blood of drug addicts, the more you find new cases.

He said that the district government had constituted a district AIDS task force, under his chairmanship, where the executive district officer (Health) would act as its secretary, and added that the task force was formed in line with the guidelines of the provincial AIDS control programme.

FREE EYE CAMP: The Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is holding a three-day free eye camp in Larkana, starting from Dec 9, said its president, Iqbal Shaikh, here on Tuesday.