KARACHI: A day before proceeding to Larkana to get firsthand understanding of the situation vis-à-vis HIV outbreak in Ratodero, Sindh Health and Population Welfare Minister Dr Azra Pechuho and a delegation of representatives of the World Health Organisation sat together to thrash out the issue.

The WHO delegation arrived on Tuesday on the request of the federal government to investigate the recent HIV outbreak in Larkana.

The meeting was attended by officials of the WHO Pakistan, UNAIDS, Unicef, UNFPA, USAID and other international and local organisations and officials.

A spokesperson for the WHO said the world health agency would be helping the Sindh health ministry to find the root cause of the outbreak through a geographical mapping process and providing the HIV treatment kits for the affected children.

Latest reports show that out of 24,568 people screened in Taluka Headquarters Hospital Ratodero, rural health centre in Bangul Dero and basic health units of Pir Bux Bhutto and Lashari, 712 people have tested positive.

With victims of two genders are almost equally affected by the lethal lifelong infection, a whopping number of 583 victims (84 per cent) are children and around 56pc of them are aged two to five years. The rest of 129 victims are adults, recent reports show.

The officials said the WHO delegation would also be helping the health ministry to make a way-forward plan for patients diagnosed with the illness in the region.

“Larkana currently has four established hospitals for the HIV treatment and several screening camps across the district. The WHO team will be working closely with these hospitals and field teams currently placed in the Larkana district,” said an official in the ministry.

The officials said the Sindh health minister along with the WHO delegation and the UN partner organisations would reach Larkana on Thursday (today) to begin the field work.

“The health ministry, WHO and the UN partner teams are very eager to work together to eradicate HIV and provide treatments to the affected population as soon as possible,” said a WHO spokesperson.

Officials said key tasks for the WHO-led team would include ascertaining the source of the outbreak and controlling it; providing technical expertise, particularly in the areas of HIV testing, paediatric HIV treatment and family counselling; and ensuring adequate supplies of rapid diagnostic tests and antiretroviral medicines for both adults and children, as well as single-use needles and syringes.

The WHO mission included experts in emergency response management, epidemiology, HIV clinical care, and infection prevention and control from WHO staff as well as the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

The officials said it was the first visit of its kind by an inspection team of WHO to investigate about HIV incidence in the region.

The team arrived after special assistant to Prime Minister for National Health Services, Dr Zafar Mirza, wrote a letter to the WHO and furnished a request for sending experts to Pakistan to visit the areas which were reporting about HIV frequently.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2019