PESHAWAR, Feb 9 The provincial government has established Paediatric HIV/Aids Case Management Centre at the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar to provide free treatment to children afflicted with the pandemic.

The one-year project, officials said, had been started with financial assistance of Unicef where one doctor and a counsellor had been appointed. Both have been imparted training in India regarding management of HIV/Aids-infected children.

The project will end on Dec 31 after which the provincial government will arrange funds to make it a permanent department. Parents' guidance, including methods requiring for safe sex practices, is also being given priority to prevent transmission of the disease to newborns.

The government had already established antiretroviral (ARV) treatment centres in the Hayatabad Medical Complex and the District Headquarters Hospital, Kohat, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation where 344 patients had been registered for treatment since 2005, the officials said.

Initially, they said, patients were reluctant to visit the ARV centres due to social stigma associated with the ailment, but now they knew that symptomatic treatment was available to them due to which patients' flow of patients was increasing.

As of December last year, 40 patients were registered from Peshawar, 32 from Afghanistan, 30 from the Kurram Agency, 23 from Bannu, 20 from Nowshera, 19 from the Khyber Agency, 18 from Hangu, 17 from Upper Dir, 16 each from North Waziristan and Swabi, 14 each from Lower Dir, Kohat, South Waziristan and Swat, 12 from the Orakzai Agency, 11 from Buner, seven each from Mohmand and Bajaur agencies, five from Lakki Marwat, four each from Frontier Region of Kohat, Malakand and Chitral, three from Mardan, two each from Karak, Dera Ismail Khan and Punjab, one each from Islamabad, Tank, Mansehra and Kohistan.

At the moment, the officials said, the ARV centre did not have data about children infected with HIV/Aids, but they hoped that the plan would motivate parents who were undergoing treatment to bring their children for necessary tests.

Doctors said a majority of the infected persons had worked in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries, who were deported after being tested positive for HI/Aids. There is no system to detect these people at the airports and inform their families accordingly and they join their families without disclosing about their disease to their wives and other family members.

The doctors said there was a genuine fear that they might have infected their children, which needed to be investigated.

The Paediatric HIV/Aids Case Management Centre is the first of its kind in the country, which will also receive children from other cities of the country. For this purpose, paediatricians will be taken on board to cope with children suffering from the disease.

Under the plan, HIV/Aids patients will be persuaded to bring their children for investigation and in case of confirmation of the disease, the children will be put on treatment. Free diagnostic and treatment facilities will be given to the children at the centre.

The centre, according to the doctors, would keep confidentiality of the patients to encourage them to visit the hospital. The centre will offer specialist treatment and drugs imported from India will be given to patients for free.

Besides, holding counselling sessions with patients and their relatives is also part of the plan.

The government is following a plan under which prevention and treatment programmes go hand in hand.

The government has established ARV centres in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar at a cost of $1.5 million. One patient's treatment costs $300-500 a year.