‘Over half of registered AIDs cases are in Sindh’

SUKKUR: The number of diagnosed AIDS cases in Pakistan has increased from 4,000 to 5,200 and 2,951 of them were reported in Sindh, said the president of the Sukkur Blood and Drugs Donating Society, Dr Muhammad Naeem, at an AIDS walk on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people including doctors, teachers, students, and paramedics came out to commemorate World AIDS Day in a rally. It started from Muhammad Bin Qasim Park and continued to the Clock Tower.

The total number of registered AIDS patients in Pakistan is 5,200 while the number of unregistered patients is 125,000, said Dr Naeem. “There are an increasing number of AIDS patients in jails and AIDS transmission through needles is also on the rise in upper Sindh,” he said, adding that, the percentage of AIDS cases in Sindh jails is 8.2 per cent and most of them are reported from the Malir and central jails in Karachi.

Drug users form the largest chunk of patients (24 per cent), while the percentage for female sex workers is 0.7 per cent, homosexuals is eight per cent and eunuchs is 1.5 per cent.

“Drug users usually contract the disease from used needles and they often sell their blood for money, which spreads the disease,” said the doctor.

He quoted a World Health Organisation survey report, stating that the alarming rise in AIDS patients is due to the lack of checks and balances at hospitals where syringes are reused.

MPA Dr Nasrullah Baloch also participated in the walk and said the government is doing all it could to provide patients with medical care, but a joint effort is necessary. He urged NGOs to join hands with the government in order to effectively fight the condition.

Aids awareness walk

An AIDS awareness walk also took place in Karachi on Wednesday. It began at the Arts Council and continued till the press club. The provincial secretary for health, Hashim Raza Zaidi, participated and said it is important that AIDS patients register with the government. “That is the only way we can help them and help fight the disease,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.