The increasing number of HIV-AIDS cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and the adjoining Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) has not only worried the high ups from the health sector but has also confused the civil administration of the province as a reasonable number of HIV patients are extradited from the Middle East and other countries.
According to a report made public by the Health Department, 960 cases of AIDS had been registered in a period of six months. The number of registered cases is considered as the highest since official efforts were initiated to combat the trend of AIDS in this part of the country. The total number of infected people included 678 males, 236 females and 46 children.
The report revealed that the number of AIDS patients registered in a period of one year were 706, which included 454 male, 219 women and 33 children. When compared to the previous couple of years, the number of women and children patients had been increasing sharply.
The report also revealed that 111 AIDS patients had been extradited from various foreign countries during a period of six months. Majority of these people were extradited from the Middle East countries.
The high ups of the health department when contacted said that the actual number of AIDS patient was much more than what was reported because a large number of the affected people didn’t want to expose their identity. They said that the department registered only those people who were extradited from abroad on the grounds of carrying the deadly virus or those who voluntarily allowed their registration and identification.
The efforts of the health department had been made hard by the fact that AIDS patients and their relatives were reluctant to help the registration staffers in identifying and registering the affected people. Apart from this, a recent survey of national and international health bodies revealed that the majority of cancer patients were also from KPK. The health officials also stated that efforts were underway for the detection of polio cases in KPK and FATA after religious clerics aligned with the Taliban ideology asked people to refuse polio vaccination for children as it was un-Islamic. The civil administration had been making its best efforts to convince the people of these areas to allow children under the age of five to be vaccinated.