Hundreds of Pakistani children infected with HIV have not been treated

The United Nations World Health Organization said hundreds of HIV-positive children in Pakistan could not get treatment because there were not enough antiretroviral drugs in the country.

The children are in Larkana, a poor district in southern Sindh province, where in the past six weeks, nearly 785 people have been diagnosed with the AIDS virus.

According to the authorities, 82% of the confirmed cases, around 650, are children, most of them under the age of five, while almost all of their parents have had a negative test.

The WHO said in a statement that it had tweeted on Thursday that only 43% of the positive cases were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to insufficient stocks.

"The current stocks are sufficient to meet the needs of 240 children until July 15, 2019, of which 231 are already receiving treatment," he said. "This means that only nine more children can be enrolled for treatment with the help of available stocks, leaving many other children HIV-positive," the statement said.

Until the recent outbreak in Larkana, according to officials, just over 1,000 children were living with HIV in Pakistan.

The Pakistani authorities, with the help of international partners, including the WHO, have screened nearly 27,000 people since April 25, when an unprecedented HIV epidemic was reported. announced for the first time in Larkana, with an estimated population of 1.5 million.

According to members of international teams helping local partners to fight HIV, the areas at the center of the epidemic have temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius and lack paved roads and public transportation. . It is therefore difficult for families to go to improvised testing camps. epidemic.

Federal health adviser Zafar Mirza said the government was importing drugs to treat all HIV-infected children. At a recent press conference in Islamabad, he explained that stocks in the country were insufficient because it is rare for children to be infected with HIV on such a scale.

A WHO official confirmed to VOA that the drug from Ethiopia was already under way and that it would soon be available to all children infected with the virus.

Mirza said the government is also importing 50,000 new blood test kits and three treatment centers are being established in Larkana and surrounding districts.

Officials said potential drivers of the outbreak would appear to point to unsafe blood transfusion practices, reuse of needles and injection syringes, infusions and poor infection control practices, including a lack of sterilization.

A joint team of US and WHO rapid reaction experts is now in the region to help uncover the cause of the largest HIV epidemic in Pakistan. Preliminary findings of the investigation are expected to be announced Friday.

Pakistani and US officials suspect the unprecedented epidemic is the result of questionable medical practices in public and private hospitals. In addition, they note that out of about 600,000 unskilled doctors practicing illegally across the country, 270,000 are located in Sindh.

With 20,000 new HIV infections in 2017, Pakistan is experiencing the second fastest growing AIDS epidemic in the region. Officials warned that the number of HIV / AIDS carriers in the country would be around 163,000, but the reported cases are well below the true scale of the epidemic.

Critics also point to the failings of the Pakistani national health system, the low priority given to the problem, corruption, the recent abolition of the Federal Ministry of Health and the delegation of its functions to the provinces for the worsening of the health sector and the multiplication of HIV infections.

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