LAHORE – A government handout issued on Thursday announced the establishment of the country’s first independent specialized paediatric centre at Services Hospital for the treatment of HIV positive children under the National AIDS Control Programme.
National AIDS Control Program Programme Provincial Coordinator Dr Salman Shahid briefed Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad about the program.
He further said that qualified staff and latest diagnostic equipment had been installed in this centre. The secretary was also informed that Punjab was the first province to implement the prevention of parent to child transmission of the disease and three districts of Gujrat, DG Khan and Faisalabad had been declared as model districts. He also said that case managers had been appointed at Gujrat and DG Khan for the counselling and treatment of out-of-the-reach patients.
He said that a new treatment centre should be functional at Gujrat’s District Head Quarter Hospital before the end of the month. He said that 371 new AIDS patients had been registered whereas 1,125 Viral Load Tests and 2,488 Rapid Tests had been performed and added that screening of 1,530 suspected patients had also been carried out within a year.
