PESHAWAR, Aug 31: Patients living with HIV/Aids have alleged that the government has been ignoring them, saying that there are no treatment facilities at the state-run hospitals.

"These patients are not only looked down upon by the people but also by the doctors and health workers at the hospitals. We want better attitude of the people at the community level and availability of antiretroviral drugs at the hospitals," said a group of HIV patients to the local reporters here on Tuesday.

HIV patients drawn from various districts of the NWFP, alleged that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government was depriving them of their rights of screening and counselling facilities at the public sector's hospitals.

HIV positive people, most of them from Kurram Agency, Bannu, Hangu, Swat, Swabi and other parts of the NWFP, in a meeting arranged by Award Plus, a local NGO which has been formed in line with the WHO's guidelines of Greater Involvement of People living with Aids (GIPA), complained about the apathy of the government towards HIV positive people.

Amina Bibi, an HIV positive patient from Parachinar and the chairperson of Award Plus, said that the government did not recognize the fact that the number of Aids patients was increasing and the medicines required for the treatment of HIV positives were yet to be included in the essential drug list.

The government hospitals did not have the anti-viral drugs and the hospitals were not providing proper medical facilities to HIV patients, said Maimoona Noor, chief executive of the All Women Advancement and Resource Development (Award).

Seventeen-year-old Naila, an HIV patient from Bannu district, narrating her awesome ordeal, said that she contracted the disease from her husband who died a year ago of Aids.

"I gave birth to an HIV positive baby nine months ago at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in a corridor of a ward. I was lying on an iron bed that was without a mattress.

The treatment extended to me by hospital staff had caused me immense embarrassment, which subsequently increased my agony, trauma and pain," Ms Naila lamented. Amina Bibi said that the government should open treatment centres for the HIV patients as the number of such patients was on the rise.

According to the official data, the number of Aids patients in the NWFP is 445. Besides the official statistics, the NGO, Award, has so far registered 82 patients on its list.

Several patients on the occasion revealed that there were hundreds of patients in their respective localities, who did not come to the hospitals, fearing a public outcry against them. There should be free blood screening facility at every public hospital and the hospitals should have the essential drugs for Aids patients.

The provincial government should accept the fact that Aids was spreading in various districts of the NWFP and should provide for the medical treatment of these patients instead of overlooking the situation.

The number of HIV infected people was increasing due to the reason that many labourers, drivers, homosexuals worked in Middle East and after being deported to Pakistan they transferred the disease to their wives and children.

Naeem Khan of Kurram Agency is HIV positive for the last 11 years and his first wife who contracted disease from him died a year ago, whereas his second wife is also HIV positive.

Mr Khan complained that the hospitals mistreated them, the people of their community also looked down upon them as if they were contaminated. He said that an HIV positive patient was so mistreated that it made his/her life more miserable.

Ms Maimoona of the Award said that her organization spent Rs5,000 per patient on the treatment and screening, but no help was forthcoming either from the government or the donor organizations.