Pakistan seeks help from WHO to investigate HIV outbreak

Till now 681 HIV positive cases have been identified among the 21,375 tested in Ratodero town of Larkana district in the north-west part of the province. Out of the affected 537 are between the ages of 2 to 15

Pakistan seeks help from WHO to investigate HIV outbreak

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Karachi: The Pakistan government has sought the help of the World Health organisation (WHO) to probe the recent outbreak of HIV in the country's Sindh province, that has till now affected over 600 people, mostly children, according to a media report. Till now 681 HIV positive cases have been identified among the 21,375 tested in Ratodero town of Larkana district in the north-west part of the province. Out of the affected 537 are between the ages of 2 to 15.

HIV Cases in Larkana: Federal government providing testing kits, medicines and the team of top International Experts.
~Health Minister Dr. Zafar Mirza pic.twitter.com/VtLNkwYP0w
— Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) May 27, 2019

Pakistan - International rapid response team called over HIV/AIDS outbreak in Sindh https://t.co/zplym5vdXT h/t Shiloh
— FluTrackers.com (@FluTrackers) May 28, 2019

Traveling to Pakistan right now to lead the @WHO investigation into the cause of this huge #HIV outbreak in #Pakistan https://t.co/xsgw7WmDgm
— Oliver Morgan (@OWMorgan) May 28, 2019

Meeting with #community organisations is imp to get feedback on real issues faced by communities. Meeting held with #Perwaz #Male Health Society working on #HIV #prevention among key populations in #Karachi, #Sindh @UNAIDS believes in #community #engagement along with partners pic.twitter.com/iocyyBDFsi
— Fahmida Iqbal Khan (@FahmidaIqbal) May 28, 2019

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. "We are expecting a 10-member rapid response team from the WHO and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to arrive in a few days and we will be able to know the exact reason for the outbreak of the disease in Ratodero," Special Assistant, Zafar Mirza to the Prime Minister, on National Health Services, was quoted.

The International expert team arrived Karachi, #Sindh to investigate the root cause of the latest HIV outbreak in #Pakistan which has sent shockwaves around the globe.
But Pakistan is busy in celebrating #28u00d9u0085u00d8u00a6u00dbu008c_u00dbu008cu00d9u0088u00d9u0085_u00d8u00aau00dau00a9u00d8u00a8u00dbu008cu00d8u00b1 @ShamaJunejo @NJLahori @titojourno @WHO @OmarWaraich pic.twitter.com/I44ipY4ADw
— THE SINDHI NARRATIVE (@TSNARRATIVES) May 28, 2019

The CDC is a leading public health institute in the US and works with several public health institutions in Pakistan. "We have a hypothesis that they became infected with HIV either through unscreened blood transfusions or usage of infected syringes as they are usually re-packed and re-used in unhygienic conditions. The third reason could be the lack of infection prevention and control and unprotected sex," he added. Police last month arrested a doctor for allegedly transferring the virus to his patients. 17 quacks in the district were also held and their clinics sealed earlier this month. Mirza said they have ordered 50,000 more HIV test kits to screen all possible patients and three more HIV treatment centres being planned in Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah and Hyderabad in the province.

He said that the number of reported HIV cases in Pakistan was much lower than the actual number of cases. According to estimates, 163,000 people were infected with HIV in the country but only 25,000 were registered with state-run HIV programmes and out of that, only about 16,000 came regularly for treatment and medicines. He recalled that there had been HIV outbreaks in the country in the past, including in Sindh in 2016 and in Punjab in 2008.
"Our problem here is that HIV is seen as a big stigma. We need to deal with it with frankness," Mirza said. According to a UN report, Pakistan now has the second-fastest growing rate of HIV in Asia, with about 20,000 new infections in 2017 alone.