WHO team arrives to investigate HIV cases in Larkana, Sindh
The sudden outbreak of HIV causes tension and requires experts from WHO to investigate.
The recent outbreak of HIV in northwestern Sindh made headlines as over 600 cases were reported out of which most of them were children and young adults. This caused the federal government to take serious and immediate action and a team of experts were called in to investigate this whole situation to find out the root cause which is yet to be found out.
The first case was reported on 25th of April, 2019. After this a whole screening was done to exactly find out how many people were affected. Additional workers were hired and the screening lasted a couple of days.
Director General of health Dr Mansoor Solangi received the WHO team at the airport of Karachi when they arrived.
The WHO official said:
This poses a particular challenge. Prior to this outbreak, there were just over 1,200 children diagnosed with HIV and [were] receiving antiretroviral treatment in the whole of Pakistan
The WHO spokesperson said that the tasks to be fulfilled by the team were finding out the root cause of spreading of the disease, controlling it, providing treatment and medicines for the HIV patients and also providing single use need syringes.
The WHO spokesperson:
The team will work closely with the ministry of health and partners, including the Aga Khan University, Pakistan’s Field Epidemiology & Laboratory Training Programme, UNAIDS and Unicef in Larkana
The WHO team was requested to come and investigate upon the written letter of Dr Zafar Mirza who insisted to invite a team of experts. Many health experts from Karachi along with Sindh health minister Dr Azra Pechuho will accompany the WHO team.
