PESHAWAR, Jan 7: The government is planning to set up voluntary screening centres at airports to detect the HIV/Aids patients, sources said. An official of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that most Pakistani patients suffering from HIV/Aids had been infected while working in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries.

Airport immigration staff has already been trained by the National Aids Control Programme. The WHO official said that the world health agency would provide technical support besides providing free HIV screening kits to all provincial Aids control programmes.

The long and porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border is a source of concern about the spread of Aids.

The WHO had also reported 10 cases of HIV from Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Jalalabad, Kabul and Herat provinces last year.