ISLAMABAD – As many as 519 people, most of whom were children, have beentested HIV-positive in the last two weeks in Pakistan’s Sindh province,with health officials attributing the cause to the use of unsanitaryequipment, unsafe blood transfusion and rampant malpractice — often at thehands of quack doctors.
According to a UN report, Pakistan now has the second-fastest growing rateof HIV in Asia, with about 20,000 new infections in 2017 alone.
On Wednesday, 39 cases of HIV were detected during screening of people inLarkana district, taken the HIV positive cases to over 500 in the last 17days, health officials said.
As many as 23 children and five women were tested HIV-positive in thelatest screenings carried out in Ratodero town, where the highest number ofsuch cases have been detected in the district.Last month, provincial healthauthorities were alarmed when the number of HIV-positive cases rose to 39,which included over a dozen children.
According to an inquiry by the health authorities, most of the infectedchildren had visited a private clinic of a local paediatrician named DrMuzaffar Ghangar, who himself is an AIDS patient, in Ratodero for otherailments.
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Ghangar, who is also employed at a public hospital in Ratodero, is accusedof infecting more than 50 patients, mostly children, by repeated use ofsingle contaminated syringe. The doctor has been arrested and is currentlyunder police custody.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said more blood screening camps arebeing set up in the district to speed up the process of detecting HIVpositive cases.
