Sindh to establish endowment fund for HIV patients

The Sindh government is going to establish an endowment fund to take care of the needs of the people in the province affected by the recent outbreak of HIV epidemic.

Sindh Information and Law Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab said this on Monday while talking to media persons at the Sindh Assembly building. He asked the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the federal government to support the provincial government in its drive to provide health care services to the people of Sindh.

Wahab also lamented that the federal government in the new Public Sector Development Programme had allocated just Rs2 billion for the development projects of Karachi. He said allocating such a meagre amount was tantamount to showing animosity towards Karachi and Sindh. Criticising the Sindh governor, he said the governor lacked the experience to run the government affairs.

The information adviser remarked that the federal government had assumed once again the control of three major government-run hospitals in the city without reserving funds for the provision of medicines to patients and payment of salaries of the staffers of these hospitals. He said there should not be any politics on important institutions like the hospitals.

He said when the federal government was incapable of establishing its own institutions, it should not snatch the same from the provincial government. The recent discoveries of a large number of HIV cases from Sindh have become a global concern. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria on Saturday said it is worried about a possible spread of HIV into general population in Pakistan as recent outbreak in Rato Dero area of Larkana (and many outbreaks before) is just a symptom of a deeper crisis.

“The spread of HIV in Pakistan is worrying. Long time thought to be contained in high risk groups, notably injecting drug users, it is now on the verge of spilling into the general population. The epidemic in Larkana (and many outbreaks across Pakistan) is just a symptom of a deeper crisis. There is no reason for panic, but also no justification for denial,” said Dr. Werner Buehler, Senior Fund Portfolio Manager at the Global Fund in Geneva in response to written queries from The News International. Responding to queries from The News on HIV, AIDS situation in Pakistan and a possible procurement of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines for HIV infected children in Ratodero, the Global Fund official confirmed the fund has started procurement of Pediatric Antiretroviral Therapy (ART/ARVs) medicines for the children “through our Rapid Supply Mechanism, after consultation with WHO on the most appropriate regimens”, Dr. Werner Buehler told this scribe in his email.

Over 742 people including 605 children have so far been tested positive for HIV in Ratodero, Larkana since April 25, 2019, officials of Sindh AIDS Control Programme (SACP) said, adding majority of the children (411) are of two to five years of age while 57 are less than one year old. Following reports of deaths of some children due to HIV/AIDS related co-infections in Ratodero, the World Health Organization (WHO) officials in Pakistan said they have requested the Global Fund to provide pediatric ART medicines for around 500 children under the age of five years who could not take drug in tablet forms.