AIDS day: ‘470 people have tested HIV positive in DG Khan’

‘The biggest challenge is changing social perspective’.

MULTAN: Nisar Khan* of Darkhan in Dera Ghazi Khan lost his eight-months pregnant wife to AIDS last week. Investigations into the case revealed that two of his children, who had died earlier, had also been affected. A week later, he too tested HIV positive.

A recent five-years survey of Tender Hearts, a non government organisation, revealed that there were more than 10,000 HIV positive people in Dera Ghazi Khan, a district with 2.2 million people.

The NGOs officials said they could not share details since that might affect their capacity to approach patients. They said the biggest challenge they faced was to change the social perspective whereby patients are shunned by families and friends.

Muhammad Ali, a supervisor with the Punjab AIDS Control Programme in Dera Ghazi Khan told The Express Tribune that 470 patients had tested positive for HIV in the district by November 25, 2013. Of these, he said, 55 come from Kohlu and Rakhni Baar Khan in Balochistan. He said most of them had been working in the United Arab Emirates. He said 35 patients had died in 2013 in Dera Ghazi Khan.

Muhammad Hammad, who also works as a supervisor with the Punjab AIDS Control Programme in the district, said the hardest part was bringing patients to the centre for tests.

“Our duties include counselling and providing confidentiality, which is their biggest demand.”

Dr Sadia Sheraz, associate professor at Dera Ghazi Khan Medical College and a volunteer worker with the AIDS programme, said south Punjab was slowly becoming the hub of AIDS patients.

“There is no check on international passengers coming directly to Dera Ghazi Khan,” she complained.

She said most patients belonged to Sakhi Sarwar, Kot Mubarak, Kaala, Saddaruddin, Yaaru Khosa and the tribal belt, including Rajanpur.

She said the registered patients included 145 women, 15 children under 10-years-old and a transgender.

Urging people to get tested, she said, the test took only 10 minutes.

She said the confirmation test called CD-4 was not available in Dera Ghazi Khan. It cost Rs18,000 and was only available in Lahore.

Health workers dilemma

While health workers continue to struggle with challenges in the field, there is one big challenge they have been faced with at work- the workers at the only HIV/AIDS control centre in south Punjab have not been paid their salaries for six months.

Ali of the Punjab AIDS Control Programme told The Express Tribune that the team in the district had been working on ad-hoc appointment for seven years.

He said none of them had been paid for the last six months.

The centre was constructed in Dera Ghazi Khan district in 2006. It has the largest number of registered patients in the Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2013.