May 19, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 02, 1428

PESHAWAR, May 18: At least 36 patients of HIV/Aids died last year in the country, official sources said. “Of the 619 patients registered at the anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres, 36 have died,” said a doctor. He said 256 of the patients received treatment.

The National Aids Control Programme (NACP) in collaboration with the World Health Organisation has established nine anti-retroviral therapy centres.

The doctor said 17 of 134 patients registered in Hayatabad Medical Complex had died, eight of 127 in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, two of 40 in Meo Hospital in Lahore, six of 70 in Karachi Services Hospital, two of 66 in Karachi’s Liaquat National Hospital and one in Lahore’s Shaukat Khanum Hospital, which had 80 patients by December.

He said the therapy was needed for about 3,900 infected people reported so far to reduce the risk of transmission of the disease.

He said the ART programme had indirectly helped improve social understanding of the disease.

He said the ART reduced chances of HIV transmission, slowed the progress of the infection and improved the patients’ quality of life.

Another doctor said inadequate surveillance, pervasive social stigma, lack of awareness among people and medical practitioners and the limited number of voluntary counselling and testing centres might be contributing to an underestimation of the prevalence of the disease.

The UNAIDS estimates the number of patients in Pakistan at 80,000 to 140,000.

‘'We are at present focusing on developing and scaling up staff capacity and health infrastructure, such as diagnostic facilities, treatment support and home-based services,” he said.

The cost of generic ART, three-drug regimen, is $300-500 per patient per year and the total annual cost of the programme would be $1.5 million.

Dr Yasin Khan, in charge of the ART centre in Peshawar, said he had admitted six patients over the past month. He said he had seen patients in India who had been on ART for 15 years.