Surge in AIDS cases denied

LAHORE : The Punjab AIDS Control Programme (PACP) has denied any sudden increase in the number of HIV cases in Punjab during the last one year.

The PACP spokesman said that PACP itself had been sharing names of districts having high prevalence of HIV in Punjab. “We also shared even the number of patients under treatment (8300 under active treatment currently) last month, as we believe in being transparent and open,” he said.

In the years 2017 and 2018, Punjab witnessed increase in cases in Kot Momin, Sargodha, and Chiniot districts. Centres were immediately set up at Chiniot District Headquarters Hospital and Kot Momin Tehsil Headquarters Hospital. However, these towns are in close geographic proximity to Faisalabad, therefore, patients often prefer to visit Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, for treatment out of their own choice. Patients are registered on biometric, allotted unique IDs and they could choose to take medicine anywhere in Punjab as their history and record is maintained on online database. Our record shows Faisalabad was preferred choice of patients registered at other towns, the PACP spokesman said. This was not some sudden surge in cases, but patients choose to visit Faisalabad. However, PACP regretted that some vested interests were twisting the facts to mislead people as if there is some outbreak in Punjab, he said.

The PACP records indicate that most patients prefer to seek treatment from teaching hospitals in Lahore, Faisalabad and other mega cities, even though centres are available in their neighbourhoods. “PACP keeps everything transparent as it openly shares the data,” concluded the spokesman.