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The number of registered AIDS patients in the Punjab has risen from 231 in 2007 to 5,901 this year, Punjab AIDS Control Programme Treatment Coordinator Tayyaba Rasheed said on Thursday.
She was speaking at a consultative seminar on Fast Tracking of HIV. Representatives of the programme, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Children’s Fund and several NGOs attended the seminar organised in connection with the World AIDS Day.
Rasheed said the AIDS prevalence rate had dropped by 58 per cent worldwide over the last five years. She said the syringes used by drug addicts were the major source of AIDS transmission.
Zaman Khan presented a case study of Jinnah Hospital’s HIV Treatment Centre. He said nearly 1,200 AIDS patients were registered with the hospital. He said the hospital did not have the facility to treat the children suffering from the disease. Khan said one out of three registered patients lost follow up with their doctors. This adversely affects the patient’s health, he said. International Organisation for Migration head Asma Nadeem Malik said it was doctors’ responsibility to get back to their patients. “I keep record of my patients and get back to them if they don’t show for treatment.”
National AIDS Control Programme Senior Programme Officer Sofia Siddiqui stressed the need for good coordination between NGOs and the government for controlling AIDS.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2015.
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