BADIN: Three new cases of HIV — of a couple and an infant — surfaced in Badin district which has already registered 81 cases of the disease from 1995 to March 2019, says focal person of HIV/AIDS Control Programme Dr Mohammad Haroon Memon on Wednesday.

Mr Memon said that six suspected cases of HIV came up after blood screening exercise at basic health unit and other healthcare centres. They were referred to Karachi for confirmation and of them samples of a husband and wife and three-month-old baby were found HIV positive and as many negative, he said.

He rejected reports that six to eight HIV cases had been detected in the district and said that social media misquoted figures and unfortunately, the district information department office released wrong figures, he said.

He said that health department had set up screening camps at different places and in central jail

as well where out of 375 prisoners no positive case was found among the 263 prisoners screened over the past two days.

He said the employees of health, police and other departments which were included in “high-risk group” would also be screened. There were about 15 to 20 transgenders in the city who had already been screened in past but they would again be screened, he said.

He said that a meeting chaired by commissioner said that HIV test would be considered mandatory for all pregnant women before delivery. HIV tests of all people undergoing dental procedure or general surgery would also be made mandatory, he said.

LARKANA: The project manager of Sindh AIDS Control Programme Dr Sikandar Memon said that 29 individuals tested positive for HIV after blood screening of 1,192 people at Ratodero taluka hospital on Wednesday.

He said adding that so far 507 were diagnosed with HIV after screening of 13,876 individuals. Among them 97 were adults and 410 were children, he said.

He said that 938 lady health workers were going door to door to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS.

Asked about opening of new camps for blood screening, Mr Memon said that managers of Integrated Health Services had asked for one day’s grace period and they would start blood screening from Thursday.

The PPHI established a blood screening camp at Saeedodero Basic Health Unit where 208 people were tested and all were found HIV negative, he said.

Meanwhile, people coming from different areas to Ratodero taluka hospital and other HIV screening camps in the district faced great hardships because of overcrowding.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2019