PESHAWAR, May 10: The provincial steering committee on health has sanctioned additional grant for anti-retroviral therapy centre at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, and ordered the centre be made functional to help HIV/Aids patients in the province.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee of Aids Control Programme, NWFP, with NWFP Minister for Health Inayatullah Khan on Tuesday.

The committee reviewed in detail activities of the programme and made a number of decisions for streamlining the project to meet its objectives. The committee also approved revision of the PC-I of the project to make it functional.

The health minister underlining the need of mass awareness about the killer disease, asked for imparting training to religious leaders, media men and other groups to prevent it from spreading.

Besides involving media for creating awareness in the society about AIDS, the minister directed the staff to initiate steps for ensuring safe blood transfusion.