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| July 12, 2006 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 15, 1427 |
Pims gets HIV care centre
ISLAMABAD, July 11: Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan on Tuesday said that although HIV/Aids in Pakistan had not reached epidemic proportions, presence of a number of factors had made it high risk country.
Speaking at inaugural ceremony of a free HIV treatment and care centre at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences the minister said unless the government took proactive measures at this point when it had a window of opportunities and time too was on its side, Pakistan being a developing nation would be unable to afford not only the health, but also the social and economic implications of a full scale HIV epidemic, the minister said.
He said the HIV had hit 40 million worldwide and there was no country in the world that was immune to this devastating pandemic. However, the minister said, with abundant resources and functional health system developed countries had successfully managed to deal with this human crisis.
But the developing countries with limited resources were struggling to strengthen prevention and treatment programmes, build health systems, form linkages, mobilise financial and human resources and at the same time they were dealing with the crisis that was ever growing, he said.
Free HIV care services including Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) to HIV positive was the ethical responsibility of the government, and ART could reduce mortality and morbidity and improve quality of life for Aids patients, he said.
Further, ART reduced HIV transmission and slowed the spread of the disease, he added.
The high cost made the treatment unbearable for many particularly the poor who were least informed and had little access to preventive measures, he said.
Besides this, after being infected these sufferers also had to bear the burden of social marginalization, stigma and discrimination, he said.
He said the HIV positive and their families at this centre would receive equitable access to the best clinical management of their disease, confidential counselling, nutritional advice and ART without any discrimination. The HIV care centre staff was particularly aware of the issues of women and children and other high risk and vulnerable population.
The Health Minister said that this centre would help prevent stigma and discrimination attached with PLWHAs. He also thanked the executive director of PIMS for their cooperation.
The representatives of UNAIDS, CRS, Global Fund, UNICEF and World Bank were also present on the occasion. The Executive Director PIMS assured full cooperation and support on part of PIMS.
The HIV treatment and care centre, established under Enhanced HIV/AIDS Control Programme, at (Pims), has been set up with the purpose of providing free health care facilities and voluntary confidential counselling and testing to those requiring services.
National programme Manager of national AIDS control programme Dr. Asma Bokhari, on the occasion briefed about the centre and said that the centre would provide antiretroviral therapy, management of opportunistic infections, voluntary counselling and testing services and acute chronic care of HIV related infections to people living with HIV & AIDS (Place).
She said that a total of 96 persons had been registered so far with the center and 47 persons were taking ART.}‘ASCII }
Online adds: Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan said on Tuesday that counseling centres would be set up at the capital hospitals to create awareness about HIV/Aids.
The Health Minister said that health care centres would also be established at the federal and provincial level.
Talking to reporters after inaugurating Aids centre at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here on Tuesday he said a proposal of inclusion of Aids subject in curriculum at school level was under consideration.
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