LARKANA: Eighteen more children were detec­ted HIV positive after scree­ning of 885 people in Ratodero and nearby villages on Tuesday, raising the number of children infected with the deadly disease to 33 in two days.

Dr Safdar Abbasi, who led a team of Sindh AIDS Con­trol Programme, said that 106 people were screened in Thango Bozdar village and of them four children were found infected with HIV while blood samples of their parents were free from the disease.

In Allahdino Selro village, 198 people were screened and of them two children were detected HIV positive, he said.

Sources in the programme said that blood of 581 individuals was screened at Ratodero taluka hospital and of them, 18 children were found HIV positive. On Monday, 14 children and a woman were found HIV positive after screening and 16 quack ‘clinics’ were sealed in a crackdown.

Meanwhile, a team of officials of Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC), health department and district administration sealed 16 more quack clinics and laboratories in the crackdown launched after reports of the spread of HIV in the area hit headlines a couple of days ago.

The team comprising district health officer Dr Abdul Rehman Baloch, SHCC deputy director Ayaz Mustafa and Ratodero assistant commissioner Qazi Sardar sealed five quacks’ clinics and three laboratories — Moria Lab, Memon Ultra­sound and Lab and Mehran X-Ray and Lab — in Nau­dero in a continued crackdown against illegal medical practitioners.

They also had two quacks Abdul Qadir Kandhar and Alidino Morio, arrested. They were whisked away to Naudero police station where they were kept for some time before they were released, said the sources.

A doctor who was himself diagnosed with HIV was arrested after an FIR was lodged against him at Ratodero police station over a complaint registered by Abdul Sami, a member of SHCC.

Read: Police arrest Larkana doctor accused of ‘spreading’ HIV among patients

He was accused of using disposable syringes multiple times at his private clinic and continued to practice as medical practitioner without having his registration renewed for 10 years.

Police produced the doctor in the court of civil judge and judicial magistrate Ali Ahmed Gabol on Tuesday and the judge remanded the doctor in police custody for two days.

Larkana range deputy inspector general of police Irfan Baloch has formed a joint investigation committee headed by Qambar-Shahdadkot SSP Kamran Panjotha, Larkana SSP, ASP and SHO of Ratodero as its members to investigate the doctor detained at Ratodero police station and submit a report in the court concerned.

On Monday, the team carried out blood screening at Ratodero taluka hospital and detected eight HIV positive patients, including seven children and a medical officer serving at the hospital, said the sources.

The sources said that the screening camp was closed for a day on Sunday after all available kits required for the tests were used up.

Dr Safdar Abbasi, who led the team, said that 169 blood samples were scree­ned in a camp in the town’s outskirts and of them five turned out to be HIV positive, including a mother and her three children.

At the screening camp at the taluka hospital, 180 sam­ples were analysed and eight of them were found HIV positive, said the sour­ces, adding that a mother and her one-month-old son were found HIV positive in Nau­dero town.

The anti-quackery team raided quacks’ clinics in Ratodero and sealed 16. One operation theatre being run by a doctor was also sealed as it did not meet prescribed standards, said the sources.

Officials said quackery was the main cause of spread of this deadly disease. Therefore, the departments concerned focused on their elimination and the high-risk areas to contain the disease, they said.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2019