PESHAWAR, Jan 29: Misleading data about HIV/Aids patients is affecting government’s efforts to create awareness about the disease and provide symptomatic treatment.
“Over 300 new cases of HIV/Aids were reported from the NWFP and Fata in 2005 at the Pakistan Medical and Research Centre (PMRC) of the Khyber Medical College (KMC),” said an official, adding that the NWFP Enhanced HIV/Aids Control Programme had recorded only 35 new cases during this period.
Officials of the NWFP HIV/Aids Control Programme say that they do not accept the data collected by the PMRC because it is not authorised to conduct HIV/Aids tests. The PMRC, which had more than 16 outlets in medical institutions of the country, has services of top pathologists who are qualified enough to conduct all sorts of blood-related investigations including HIV/Aids tests.
“The provincial Aids control programme has been presenting old data for 10 years. It does not have proper arrangements to collect authentic data”, official said.
The PMRC says that new cases include eight newborn babies who contracted the disease from their parents. Of the remaining patients, 29 are household wives, 83 labourers, 41 truck drivers, 4 businessmen, one student and 14 Afghan refugees. 46 patients, according to the PMRC, refused to disclose their identities due to social stigma associated with the disease.
The official said that 46 new cases were reported from Kurram Agency, 26 from North Waziristan, 18 each from South Waziristan and Bannu, 17 from Hangu, 10 each from Swat and Peshawar, 7 from Orakzai Agency, 5 from Mardan, 6 each from Khyber Agency and Charsadda, 4 from Dir, 3 each from Swabi, Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan, 2 from Chitral and one from Karak.
“Most of them got infection while working abroad where they indulge in sex with prostitutes”, he said, adding that when they visited Pakistani embassies in those countries for renewal of documents, they were subjected to compulsory HIV tests and on having been found HIV positive, they were deported to Pakistan.
He said as there was no blood-screening facility at Pakistani airports, these workers, on their return disappeared. At homes they transmitted the disease to their life partners and others who came in contact with them. About truck drivers, he said that they got the infection by indulging in unsafe sex with young boys.
HIV/Aids patients told this correspondent that they were extremely concerned about their future. They express concern over treatment meted out to them by people as well as doctors when they visit hospitals. They said that there should be a centralised data collection system in the province to register Adis patients and send them to the newly established antiretroviral (ARV) therapy centre at the Hayatabad Medical Complex.
“We are looked down upon by our relatives. My husband died of Aids on Dec 3 last year. Now my father-in-law has evicted us from the house”, an 18-year-old HIV/Aids patient, told Dawn.
She said that her two-and-half-year-old baby Safia, who had been diagnosed HIV positive one year ago, was now negative because she had stopped breast-feeding her.
The NWFP and Fata have recorded 466 cases, 57 of Aids and 409 of HIV, but are yet to offered any facility to such patients. An ARV therapy centre would become operational within a period of one month.
A health official said that one doctor and a nurse had received training in India and were treating patients at the ARV therapy centre at the HMC. So far, about 60 patients had visited the centre, he said. The Provincial Aids Control Programme collects data from NGOs and Voluntary Testing Centres (VTCs) which is less authentic than that of the PMRC, an official said.
According to him, misleading data about prevalence of disease would in no way serve the purpose of putting brakes on the ailment; it would rather aggravate the situation.