KOHAT, Dec 22: Three people have been tested HIV positive for the first time in Kohat during the free HIV and hepatitis test campaign recently launched in the Liaquat Memorial Hospital, a hospital source told Dawn on Saturday.

Khan Mohammad, who is in-charge of the test campaign, told Dawn that after tests from the blood bank, two bags out of 10 were found infected with Hepatitis B and C virus.

He termed the ratio very alarming.

He said that the cases had been referred to Peshawar for further investigation. He also disclosed that the HIV infection was very common among the tribal people as thousands of them had been employed in foreign countries for the last 30 years.

But due to illiteracy in the area, the people were shy of getting the blood screened and the disease might reach serious proportions if an effective door-to-door campaign in the tribal areas was not launched immediately, he remarked.