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SHIKARPUR: Thirty-one of the 2,500 people were found HIV-positive during blood screening for HIV infection cases in Shikarpur district, Sindh, on Saturday.
New cases see an increase in the number of HIV cases in Sindh after 215 HIV cases reported in Ratodero district of Larkana last month.
According to district health officer Shabbir Sheikh, 2,500 people were examined, 31 of whom tested positive.
Those who had a positive result were receiving treatment and other equipment according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Sheikh added.
Last month, at least 215 HIV-positive cases were reported in Ratodero, including 181 cases of children aged between two months and 12 years.
In the Dakhan area of Shikarpur, 300 people were screened for HIV, 6 of whom tested positive, bringing to 13 the total number of people affected by HIV in the region.
At the request of the Ministry of Health, an international team of WHO experts arrived in Pakistan to support the response to an HIV epidemic in Larkana, Sindh.
Those affected urged the Sindh government to make HIV drugs readily available in private drug stores, aside from hospitals, to facilitate access.
Citizens have also asked the Sindh government to take appropriate measures to fight the disease.
In total, 76.1 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s. Some 35 million have died.
To date, there is no vaccine or treatment for HIV, and infected people rely on lifelong antiretroviral therapy to prevent the virus from replicating.
Without treatment, people infected with HIV develop AIDS, a syndrome that weakens the immune system and exposes the body to opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis and certain types of cancer.
The treatment has side effects and is expensive, but allows infected people to be healthier longer.
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