In Pakistan's Sindh province, as many as 519 people have been tested HIV-positive in the last two weeks. Most of them are children.
Health officials have attributed the cause to the use of unsanitary equipment, unsafe blood transfusion and rampant malpractice -- often at the hands of quack doctors.
Here’s what we know so far:
-
In Asia, according to a UN report, Pakistan now has the second-fastest growing rate of HIV.
-
In 2017 alone, Pakistan witnessed about 20,000 new infections.
-
On Wednesday, 39 cases of HIV were detected during screening of people in Larkana district. As many as 23 children and five women have tested HIV-positive in the latest screenings carried out in Ratodero town, where the highest number of such cases have been detected in the district.
-
According to an inquiry by the health authorities, most of the infected children had visited a private clinic of a local paediatrician named Dr Muzaffar Ghangar in Ratodero for other ailments.
-
Dr Muzaffar Ghangar himself is an AIDS patient.
-
He is accused of infecting more than 50 patients, mostly children, by repeated use of a single contaminated syringe.
-
The doctor has been arrested and is currently under police custody.
-
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said more blood screening camps are being set up in the district to speed up the process of detecting HIV positive cases.
-
Sindh health secretary Dr Saeed Ahmed Awan said the majority of those tested HIV positive were children and the reason for this was apparently a surge in infection rates across the country due to the use of unsanitary equipment, unsafe blood transfusion and rampant malpractice — often at the hands of quack doctors.
-
Nearly 600,000 quack doctors are operating across Pakistan and around 270,000 are practicing in the Sindh province, said a report of UNAIDS.
(With PTI inputs)
Latest World News
