As many as 65 new HIV/AIDS positive cases have been registered in last two months between June 20 to August 20 at Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) Larkana’s HIV/AIDS Treatment and Care Centre.
The number of HIV/AIDS cases has risen from 1,195 to 1,260, sources revealed on Wednesday.
As many as 108 patients have expired, out of which 90 were males, 14 females, and two each children and transgenders. Larkana still tops the list as it has 637 patients followed by Kambar-Shahdadkot having 178 positive cases, Dadu comes third having 122 patients, Khairpur Mir has 111 cases, Sukkur 50, Shikarpur 48, Jacobabad 30, Kashmore-Kandhkot 26, Naushehro Feroze 20, Ghotki 15 and Jamshoro 11 positive patients.
Out of 1260 cases, as many as 989 are males, 226 females, 16 children and 29 eunuchs and only 737 are on Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) as others have left the treatment incomplete as they were unable to bear the travelling cost to Karachi for viral load test which is necessary to determine the treatment benefits.
This facility is not available in the centre despite the large number of cases. Out of these patients, 658 are between the age group of 18 and 30 years, 351 between 31 and 40 years, 146 between 41 and 50, 42 between 51 and 60, ten between 61 and 70 years, 37 are below 18 years, and 16 are children. At least 81 patients are on isoniazid (INH), 49 on anti-koch and three are multi-drug resistant (MDR) cases.
Experts fear that the home district of Bhutto leaders will emerge as the top most HIV affected area in the province one day. According to them, there are thousands of more cases which have not been screened so far.
