LARKANA: The Sindh government has decided to set up a separate outpatient department at Children’s Hospital in Chandka Medical College Hospital complex dedicated to testing children for HIV in the wake of surfacing of a large number of people infected with the deadly virus, says Dr Sikandar Memon, project manager of Sindh AIDS Control Programme.

Mr Memon told Dawn on Wednesday that 85 HIV positive cases were detected in five days’ exercise of blood screening of 2,304 individuals at special camps set up in Ratodero. Of the total, 67 were children in different ages and 18 were adults, he said.

On Wednesday, five more HIV positive cases, among them three children and a couple, surfaced in Thango Bozdar village where 130 people were screened, said sources.

At the camp in Ratodero taluka hospital, 15 people, including 10 children, tested positive for HIV after screening of 230 people. The five-day exercise was enough to obtain certain results and now its data would be shared and discussed with Sindh health minister, secretary of health, Unicef, Global Fund, National AIDS Control Programme on Thursday, said Dr Memon.

He said that the objective to take all stakeholders on board was to help frame a comprehensive policy to fight the deadly disease in an effective manner. “We are winding up the camps and from now on district health officer will be requested to carry on the job,” he said.

He said the new cases had been detected in general population while the programme was restricted to work in high-risk population.

He proposed involving large health institutions like Aga Khan, Liaquat National and Indus hospitals which were equipped with advanced facilities to carry out the tests and look after patients.

He said the hospitals should be asked to look after specified areas to fight against the disease. The staff to be posted at the OPD for HIV at children’s hospital would be trained by the Aga Khan Hospital, he said.

“We require huge funds to implement such a policy should the government implement it in collaboration with stakeholders,” he said, adding that the government might think over initiating a pilot project wherein particular hospitals were asked to monitor focused areas.

He called for mass screening of population and said the programme was responsible for ensuring treatment to HIV patients after getting them registered and carrying out other necessary tests.

PMA slams doctor’s arrest

The Larkana chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has condemned arrest of a doctor during crackdown against quacks in Ratodero and termed it inhuman and immoral.

PMA Larkana president Dr Syed Mehboob Ali Shah told journalists after chairing a meeting of the association’s office-bearers on Wednesday that a medical graduate, who was an amputee, was implicated in an FIR lodged under Section 324 and was kept in a lock-up with criminals, which was inhuman.

He said the Larkana deputy commissioner, officers of Sindh Health Care Commission and Sindh AIDS Control Programme were violating human rights, Constitution, provincial laws and regulations of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

He said the PMA demanded unsealing clinics of six doctors in Ratodero to end unrest among doctors and urged Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Ms Faryal Talpur and Sindh health minister to order a judicial inquiry into the incident and award punishment to whoever was found guilty.

Central president of PMA Dr Ikram Tunio later met the arrested doctor in the lock-up.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2019