PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department will establish Family Care Centre to provide diagnostic and treatment services to HIV/Aids patients at Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.

Officials said that the centre was approved by health department on Tuesday that would also be used for screening of the suspected prisoners in Peshawar Central Jail. It would be set up within a month.

Officials said that UNAID, UNODC and National Aids Control Programme were supporting government to provide counselling services to the family members of HIV/Aids patients.

There is a centre at Hayatabad Medical Complex which is receiving bulk of patients for diagnostic and treatment services. The new centre at LRH is also meant for suspected patients from the Central Jail Peshawar, which has two confirmed patients.

The facility will be also used for screening suspected prisoners

Physicians at LRH have been sending suspected patients to HMC where they are tested and treated. After establishment of the new centre, the patients would be facilitated at LRH.

“There is always security risk in shifting patients from jail to HMC for treatment and testing services. LRH is located close to the jail due to which infected prisoners would get timely treatment without any risk,” said officials.

They said that two patients, one each in Lower Dir and Dera Ismail Khan, were also under treatment for HIV/Aids and government had planned to screen the suspected ones of the total 10,500 inmates of jails, especially those with drug history. They said that there were many drug addicts in Swabi jail, who underwent screening and treatment.

Also, the government has planned to impart training to staffers of the jail hospitals to enhance their techniques about HIV/Aids and refer those patients, who were tested positive, for confirmation to the new centre to be established at LRH.

The Family Care Centre would also help to scale up awareness about the causes of HIV/Aids and inform people about the preventive measures.

“Additionally, it will encourage voluntary testing by people through scaling up public awareness that the cause of HIV/Aids is transfusion of unscreened blood, use of unsterlised syringes and dental and surgical equipments besides unsafe sexual practices,” said officials.

In present scenario, not only general population but health professionals also hesitate to come into contact with HIV/Aids patients owing to the misconception that it spreads through physical contacts. Medically speaking, the disease is transmitted through blood contact and there is no risk of contracting the ailment by sharing utensils, meals and contacts.

The province has two anti-retroviral therapy centres, one each at HMC and Kohat, where 1,400 patients are under-treatment but most of the patients couldn’t be reached there.

The province has registered a total of 2,750 Aids patients but World Health Oorganisation says the number can be over 12,000 as people avoid being tested because of the stigma associated with the disease.

“Therefore, the government has planned to set up new centres at divisional level in Abbottabad, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Batkhela to encourage self-testing and enable the patients to get facilities in their own districts,” said officials.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2017