Pakistan seeks international assistance to control HIV outbreak





Islamabad – An international team of experts is expected to arrive in southern Pakistan where an HIV outbreak has infected hundreds of children.



 
A 10-member joint team of World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) would work with local medics, said Zafar Mirza, the prime minister's special advisor for health.
The experts would start working in the region in a couple of days, he said late on Sunday.  
Health officials are continuing to screen thousands of people every day after hundreds were found infected with HIV in a small town.
Nearly 800 people, mostly children, were tested positive in the town of Ratto Dhero in the province of Sindh during a screening process that was launched in April, health official Sikandar Memon said.
Up to 2,000 people are being screened every day, said Masood Solangi, director general of health for the region.
Ratto Dhero is a small, poor town in the district of Larkana, a region where more than 1,500 people were found infected last year.
The international experts would investigate the exact cause of the outbreak and assist local authorities to control the spread, Mirza said.
There are around 170,000 people registered as being infected with hIV in Pakistan, according to the National AIDS programme in the capital Islamabad.

Monday, May 27th 2019
(dpa)
           


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