KARACHI, Feb 21: The Sindh Aids Control Programme (SACP) may suffer because of interruptions in delivery of services for the prevention of spread of HIV infections and harm-reduction activities among the high-risk groups, which are likely to take place from next month.
Sources in the SACP said that some of the non-governmental organisations being funded by the World Bank (WB) and the Sindh government had recently approached the provincial Aids control programme to ensure an interim provision of funds from March onwards so that they could continue with their ongoing anti-HIV activities.
The PC-1, under which the SACP functioned and implemented various projects through the NGOs, would finally terminate in June this year and as such, the preparation of another PC-1 for three years has been initiated. But there are chances of a delay in its approval from the Pakistan government and the provincial authorities as well as the World Bank, added a source, saying that there are indications that Sindh and other provinces would be required by the foreign grants agency to increase their share in the financing of the HIV/Aids projects.
NGOs working as partners in various Aids initiatives, including detoxification for injection drug users (IDUs), rehabilitation of IDUs, peer counselling for IDUs, handling of patients living with HIV, delivery of services to male and female sex workers and jail inmates in regard to HIV infection and treatment and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), would stop functioning in phases in the coming four months, it was further said.
‘Situation may explode’
An NGO, having registered about 2,500 IDUs of Karachi for the provision of harm-reduction services through its drop-in centres, is of the view that if the service delivery was interrupted or stopped in the wake of remodelling or renewal of the SACP, the HIV/Aids situation would explode, causing risk to the security, health and development of the general population.
Another NGO representative said that a project pertaining to jail inmates, which was to complete its life in March, 2008, was on average working on 500 cases of STIs every three months and educating them, while there were already 12 HIV-positive inmates.
“Any break in their education and extension of relevant facilities among the inmates, which are considered a bridge population, can deter the situation and there remain chances of the spread of infections in general as well,” the representative added.
At present, there are 243 HIV/Aids patients registered with the SACP, including pregnant women and a few children.
According to a surveillance report prepared last year, the estimated number of high-risk persons in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana, was around 48,000, including 18,375 female sex workers, 15,950 male sex workers and eunuchs, and about 14,000 injection drug users. IDUs have the highest overall prevalence of HIV, i.e. 20.5 per cent, while eunuchs and male sex workers have 3.8 per cent; as such, there was a dire need to curtail the transmission of the immunodeficiency virus.
When contacted, the Deputy Programme Manager of the SACP, Dr Syed Qamar Abbas, said that if the projects in question were extended up to December, NGOs could be provided with relevant fund against the additional services after some re-appropriation of the unutilised funds left with the SACP.
“However, service packages could be furthered only after getting concurrences from the WB and Sindh government,” he added.