LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party’s leadership has decided to extend the ongoing exercise of blood screening for HIV beyond Larkana to other districts and further tighten the noose round the necks of the quacks in the province, says embattled PPP MPA Faryal Talpur.

She said at a gathering held at Naudero House on Sunday that lady health workers who were government’s ambassadors should inform and educate people about HIV/AIDS and the precautionary measures they could take against the disease.

She said that people should make sure before getting shaved that barbers used new blades and the administration should hold meetings with the barbers’ association to make it binding on its members to adopt safe practice.

She urged officials of the health department to hold seminars on HIV/AIDS on a regular basis to keep the population abreast of what she called ‘treatable illness’.

She assured the people found HIV positive after the blood screening exercise that they would get proper treatment and asked media not to disclose names and locations of the people inflicted with the deadly virus.

Ms Talpur, who was also chairperson of PPP ladies wing, said that the party leaders had a history of facing cases bravely. She was made to face the first case when she was fighting election and she contested polls and faced cases after obtaining bail, she said.

She said that some women were given questionnaires but she was interrogated before she was handed over the questionnaire. She was optimistic that the court would exonerate her from all charges.

She said that if the PPP had struck a deal its leaders would not have been summoned day in and day out to Islamabad courts. “We are not going to cut any deal or ask for an NRO. The charges against us are just charges. We are innocent,” she said.

She asked Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government to disclose names of the people who were demanding NRO. She visited her constituency belatedly because she was busy facing cases in Islamabad, she explained in answer to a question.

PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that the HIV/AIDS was not confined to Larkana alone but it was a global issue and 42 per cent of the people worldwide who frequently used syringes were found to be infected with the virus.

He said that more teams had been formed to combat the disease and expand blood screening exercise throughout the province. Quacks should strictly be dealt with in the light of anti-quackery law, he said.

He asked the administration to take stern action against quacks in the province and advised patients to ensure that used syringe was discarded before them. Nikahkhwans should ensure that couples had health certificates before solemnising their nikah, he said, adding that HIV/AIDS control centres had been established to provide free of cost tests and treatment to patients.

District health officer Dr Abdul Rehman Baloch said that so far blood screening of 4,200 people had been carried out in Ratodero alone. Awareness programme had been expanded to villages, he said.

Dr Hollaram, in-charge of AIDS Control Programme at Larkana centre, said that 2,488 HIV/AIDS patients who were registered with the centre were getting free of cost medicines.

‘Blood screening stopped to save PPP from bad name’

Former president of the Sindh chapter of PTI Amir Bakhsh Bhutto claimed on Sunday that blood screening exercise in Ratodero was stopped to save PPP from bad name after the number of HIV positive cases reached 200.

He said in a statement that PPP leaders and elected representatives, who had sneaked into the parliament through large-scale rigging, were shedding crocodile tears when the population of Ratodero was made to face the scourge of HIV virus in addition to lack of basic facilities.

He said that PPP leaders visited Ratodero only after Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto went there and inquired after health of patients.

Mr Bhutto said that instead of looking after people of his constituency, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was worried about the use of title ‘sahib’ and sahiba’ for him while Faryal Talpur was busy saving her skin in corruption cases.

He said the days of the Sindh government, which had come into being on the basis of massive rigging were numbered, the dark era was about to come to an end and genuine rule of people would herald soon.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2019