PESHAWAR: Aids patients denied hospitalization - Lack of separate wards
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, June 21: Lack of treatment facilities in the city's hospitals have been hitting hard patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, doctors told Dawn.
According to them, most of the patients are being denied admission to hospitals, owing to non-existence of separate wards.
"A 20-year-old woman, who had contracted the disease from her husband, was denied admission to all the three teaching hospitals in the city. Her husband died of this killer ailment in May," said a physician.
The Hangu-based woman had been married to the 30-year-old man five years ago, who had been working as labourer in Saudi Arabia. "Now she, along with her two minor daughters, is running from pillar to post for treatment. She needs symptomatic treatment, which is not forthcoming," he said.
Her two daughters, one aged three years and the other four months, have also been diagnosed as HIV positive at a local hospital, the physician said. "My mother was not in favour of my marriage with an already married person, but my father forced me into accepting the marriage proposal," the doctor quoted the woman as telling him.
Her husband had contracted the killer disease from a Sudanese woman in a Saudi Arab prison, with whom he had developed illicit relations, he added. The doctor said that her husband had developed HIV/AIDS long ago but had not revealed it to anyone for fear of social ostracization.
"The poor woman is unable to pay for the education and upbringing of her daughters, let alone bear the cost of medicines," he said. The woman said that doctors at the hospitals avoided coming in contact with her. They refused to even examine her.
Another doctor, who works with a local NGO, said that sometime back, they had admitted two HIV/AIDS patients at one of the hospitals, but no treatment was offered to them, given the reluctance of doctors and nurses to attend them.
"The health professionals were afraid of touching the patients," he said. A pathologist said that as thousands of people worked in the Middle East, away from their wives, they came into contact with sex workers from whom they contracted the ailment.
Whenever such people visited the offices in the ME countries in connection with the renewal of their visas, they were medically examined. On being tested positive, they were deported straightaway to Pakistan, without even being allowed to pack their luggage.
"As no screening tests are carried out at our airports, these people don't reveal their diseases upon arrival and subsequently infect their wives and newborn babies," he said.
There are about 80 HIV/AIDS patients in Hangu district alone, he revealed. The pathologist said that patients needing emergency treatment were often denied admission at the hospitals.
And the fear of health workers is well-placed. "Dozens of health workers, including doctors, nurses and technicians, have been tested positive for hepatitis C, who are paying for their treatment from their own pockets," said the pathologist.
The provincial AIDS Control Programme had requested the city hospitals to allocate an isolated room for the treatment of AIDS patients three months ago, but the request "has fallen on deaf ears," he said.
