Poor Outlook for HIV-positive Children in Pakistan

This report comes as it is announced South Africa has attained the UN goal of 90-90-90 diagnosis-treatment-suppression of HIV ahead of the 2020 objective. Pakistan’s recent leap away from that target illustrates the profound disparity in treatment and prevention of HIV across the globe. On April 25th, a number of children from Larkana, a city in the north-west of the Sindh province of Pakistan, were referred for HIV testing after they exhibited a persistent fever. An initial HIV-positive diagnosis of 15 children aged between 2 and 8 years old prompted a large-scale screening programme beginning on April 28th. Larkana Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Nauman Siddique wrote in an op-ed, “the results of the screening within the first few days were shocking. The tests revealed that the parents of the HIV-positive children were HIV negative.” The disease was not spread through those means commonly associated with the disease: sexual intercourse, births and drug use. Perhaps more disturbingly, the outbreak seemed to be due to systemic poor medical practice in the region. Interviews with parents regarding their childrens’ medical history revealed a local doctor, Muzaffar Ghangro, as a possible source for the outbreak. 123 of the diagnosed patients had been treated at his practice. Authorities arrested the doctor on charges of unintentional murder. He was later found to be HIV-positive, however there is no evidence that he injected the patients deliberately. WHO noted, “iatrogen...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Asia-Pacific Development & Aid Editors' Choice Featured Global Headlines Health Population Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Women's Health Source Type: news