WHO to present report on HIV/AIDS epidemic in three weeks, governor told

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it will compile its probe report on the recent outbreak of an HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ratodero town of Sindh in the coming three weeks and present it to the governor of the province and the federal health adviser.

The information to this effect was passed on to Governor Imran Ismail as he met a seven-member delegation of WHO at the Governor House on Wednesday. Dr Mahipala Palitha led the WHO’s delegation.

Dr Palitha informed the Governor that steps taken by the federal government to prevent the outbreak of AIDS/HIV in the country were praiseworthy. Ismail said that anyone who was concerned about the AIDS/HIV epidemic in the country had to work to tackle the situation while rising above politics.

He said the federal government had been providing testing kits for diagnosis of HIV/AIDS as well as medicines for treatment of patients and the monitoring of the epidemic. In this regard, the prime minister has asked the federal health adviser to provide utmost assistance to Sindh to control the disease.

The governor said that it was the utmost resolve of the government to make the people of Sindh free of this epidemic. He said the WHO team had come to Pakistan on the request of the federal government to know facts about the recent outbreak of HIV in Sindh.

He said that recommendations of the team would be helpful to prevent further outbreaks in the country. The governor pledged his fullest support for the WHO team during its stay in the country.