Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh AIDS Control Programme (SACP) Programme Manager Dr Mohammad Younis Chachar on Thursday said new AIDS treatment centre will be established each in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) soon, while seven such centres will also be set up in other major hospitals of the province.

Addressing an orientation session on Role of Media Profession in Prevention of AIDS in Sindh, organised by Sindh AIDS Control Programme in connection with the World AIDS Day to be observed on December 1st, he said the SACP management had deiced to establish nine more AIDS treatment and diagnostic centres across the province. He said those centers would be opened in Karachi and other parts of province soon. SACP Deputy Programme Manager Dr Farhat, Dr Qamar Abbas and Dr Sikander Iqbal were also present on the occasion.

Dr Chachar said management had also formed divisional and districts task force teams to devise strategy to control the prevalence of AIDS in the province through proper monitoring and surveillance. He said programme management had started different awareness campaigns in collaboration with religious scholars, media persons and healthcare providers in order to increase the awareness level in the society.

Dr Sikander Iqbal of Sindh AIDS Control Programme said 1,157 AIDS positive cases had been reported in current year, out of which 1,017 are male, 122 female and 18 transgender. He said AIDS program had registered 9,107 AIDS positive cases since 2004, out of which 8,162 are male, 550 female and 41 transgender. He said a total of 304 people had died of AIDS since 2004, while 26 were expired this year so far.

He informed that 80,000 to 100,000 AIDS infected people are living in Pakistan, out of which 45,000 are in Sindh. He informed that around 3,500 million people are living with HIV in the world. He said major high risk groups of AIDS prevalence are long distance truck drivers, female sex workers, transgender sex workers, men having sex with men (MSMs), injecting drug users (IDUs), jail inmates, children born to infected parents, street children and victims of unsafe medical procedures.