21 August 2004	Saturday	04 Rajab 1425

KARACHI, Aug 20: More than 10 days ago some 350 drug addicts had been taken off the streets and sent to the Edhi Centre near Sohrab Goth. By Friday, however, the number of addicts lodged there came down to a hundred.

Initially the addicts were supposed to be weaned off drugs and then rehabilitated. But some sources told Dawn that the initiative under which they had been taken off the streets was marked with mismanagement and no follow-up exercise had been undertaken so far.

As a result, many addicts were back on streets, making one wonder exactly what the authorities had achieved after detaining a few hundred of them for more than a week. They claimed that the initiative against addicts had failed to achieve its objectives.

One senior official claimed that the health department really did not know what to do with the addicts. He also claimed that the Edhi Foundation was not equipped to deal with so many addicts.

Chief of the Sindh Aids Control Programme, Dr Sharaf Ali Shah, told Dawn that no meeting had been held to discuss the situation. "And the enthusiasm with which the drive was launched by the authorities has been declining," he said.

Answering a question, Dr Shah said slightly more than a hundred blood samples had been drawn from the drug addicts. "And some cases of HIV have been detected but we are not in a position to disclose the number yet."

He said his colleagues were busy in compiling and tallying the results of the tests. "Our report will be ready by next week." Rizwan Edhi of the Edhi Foundation said about 110 addicts were still at the Edhi Centre near Sohrab Goth.

In response to a question, Mr Edhi said some 25 addicts had fled the centre soon after the launch of the drive. "And about 200 were handed to their family members." He added that the Edhi Foundation was looking after addicts on its own. "Our foundation is paying all the bills."

The coordinator of the drive, Dr (Capt) Mirza Raza Ali of the Civil Hospital Karachi, said the initiative had not been launched on the health department's behest. Rather, it was undertaken on the orders of the police.

"The charges that the drive was marked with mismanagement are not fair," he claimed. "My task was only to coordinate the testing of blood samples from these people so that we can find if they were suffering from diseases which can infect the general population. That was all."

Dr Ali said he had asked a private laboratory to determine how many addicts were suffering from hepatitis. "Similarly, we asked the Sindh Aids Control Programme to find if these people had HIV or Aids. And the Civil Hospital people were asked to find out if they had skin ailments."

Asked about his future steps, Dr Ali said a detailed report on the health of addicts in question would be presented to the authorities early next week. "Then we will decide what to do with each individual case."