PESHAWAR: The private laboratories have been causing worries among the people by giving them ‘wrong results’ for HIV/Aids tests, according to relevant sources.

“We have received over 12 people, who were tested positive for HIV/Aids by private laboratories but they were diagnosed negative in public sector authorised labs,” according to sources at the Antiretroviral Therapy Centre (ARV), Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar.

They said that recently a patient was given positive result for HIV in Buner district but he was tested negative for the pandemic at the ARV Centre.

Officials advise patients to visit authorised Antiretroviral Therapy Centre

Officials said that the situation was alarming because the patients, who were declared positive for the disease, faced anxiety and tension because people thought that HIV was a sex-borne and incurable ailment.

“Such cases have been coming from almost all districts where the patients are referred to private laboratories by medical practitioners for the test for which the laboratories are not authorised. Not only creating tension for the people, these laboratories also charge the patients heavily,” said sources.

They said that a single test cost Rs100 and that too in ARV Centre where the investigation was carried out by skilled technicians in line with guidelines of the World Health Organisation while the private labs charged the people between Rs800 to Rs1,500.

Sources said that a young man, who was tested positive for HIV recently, contacted the ARV Centre where his test emerged negative. They said that the man was going to a foreign country on work visa but he didn’t go owing to the test.

They said that some of the tests were conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital to re-assure the patients that they were not infected with the complicated ailment. Sources said that a Peshawar-based famous laboratory issued a positive result to a person, who was subsequently declared negative at the HMC Centre.

Dr Ayub Roz, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa head of the integrated programme for HIV/Aids, hepatitis and thalassaemia, confirmed that incorrect results were being given to the people by private laboratory that was major source of concerns for the health department.

“We have been issuing directives to the district health officers and district headquarters hospitals to refer suspected HIV patients to the divisional centres for correct diagnosis to safeguard people from unnecessary embarrassment,” he said.

Dr Ayub said that their new centres became operational in Mardan, Batkhela, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Abbottabad where the patients could get the facilities free of cost. “The centres established at divisional level are meant to provide counselling to the patients as well as their families to prevent spread of the disease and lessen the stigma associated with it,” he said.

Dr Ayub said that two ARV centres, one each in Peshawar and Kohat, had been functional for more than 10 years and another one would start operations at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar within a fortnight. “There is no point in going to private laboratories for HIV test because the treatment is available only at government hospitals,” he said.

Dr Ayub said that there were reports that the people wrongly diagnosed as HIV patients were denied visa by embassies in Islamabad. “We have conducted about 200 HIV tests free of cost at the ARV Centre and more than 1,400 patients are getting treatment,” he added.

Dr Ayub Roz said they had planned to organise workshop for private medical practitioners to scale up their capacity regarding handling suspected HIV patients. “People should be sent to the centre for authenticated results,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017