WHO team arrives to visit HIV-hit areas in Larkana

A delegation of World Health Organization (WHO) reached Karachi on Tuesday to visit the areas affected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) outbreak. Director General Health Sindh Dr Masood Solangi received the 12-member team at Karachi airport Tuesday. The 12-member team comprises experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, UNAIDS and Centre for Disease Control (CDC). American, British, German, Swiss, Italian, Canadian, Thai, Lebanese, Ethiopian and Pakistani experts will gather information from Sindh health department.
The team will also conduct interviews of the patients and their family members in Ratodero. It is worth mentioning here that 700 patients have been tested positive for HIV in Ratodero including 576 children. Tests of over 21,000 people were conducted after the disease was diagnosed in the area. The WHO experts will stay in Karachi today. They will meet the officials of the health department and other concerned departments. Health Minister of Sindh, Dr Azra Pechuho, secretary health and other health department officials will also be accompanied with the WHO team.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister for National Health Dr Zafar Mirza had written a letter to the WHO and requested for immediately sending a team of experts to Pakistan to visit the areas affected by the HIV epidemic. It is the first visit of an inspection team of WHO of the HIV affected areas after an outbreak of HIV in the region. The WHO team will inquire into the HIV epidemic in Ratodero, the most affected city in the area.
According to health officials, HIV has been confirmed in 700 people in Ratodero including 576 children and 124 adults. Pakistan had also requested the WHO to provide diagnostic kits for HIV Aids. The Prime Minister's aide on national health in his letter asked the WHO to immediately provide 50,000 HIV diagnostic kits for the crisis areas adding that the HIV cases have reached to epidemic level in Larkana district.
The number of HIV patients in Sindh increasing with every passing day as four more cases of HIV were reported in district Shikarpur on Tuesday. With four new cases, the number of affected people in Shikarpur has jumped to 36, sources said.