LARKANA:Rs1 billion Endowment Fund announced by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardar for HIV patients of Ratodero region could still not be released despite lapse of one year, leaving the life of the disease patients, particularly children, at stake, PPI learnt on Monday.
Talking to PPI today, Provincial Program Manager, Sindh AIDS Control Program (SACP), Dr Saqib Ali Shaikh said that the Account of Endowment Fund for Ratodero had been opened and the endowment fund amount had also been ‘ensured and secured’ to the Health Department, but the release request of the fund in the same account was still awaited from the Finance Department and the process had paused due to COVID-19 lockdown.
Shaikh said that 16 HIV treatment centers were working in Sindh out of which four were established during the current fiscal year which includes Taluka Headquarter Hospital in Ratodero, Pediatric Hospital in Larkana, LUMHS ART Centre in Hyderabad and GMMMC ART Centre in Sukkur for the benefit of HIV positive children and adults.
He said that state of the art HIV Treatment Center had been established at Ratodero in collaboration with UNICEF for providing treatment and testing facilities, while treatment adherence is ensured through placing local NGO Bridge Consultants in the community besides ensuring access to a free screening, testing and care for most vulnerable and hard to reach communities had been ensured.
He said Sindh Health Care Commission, Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority and Drug Regulatory Authority was extensively working to curb the menace of the source of transmission through their developed systems. He said the Health Department in support of Academia and UN Donors was building capacities of Health care providers at all levels to know the basics of IPC and also implement it during service provision in hospitals and clinics.
In this connection when this scribe contacted an internationally known expert on HIV/AIDS and former SACP Chief, Dr Sharaf Ali Shah, he said that the HIV outbreak still continued in Ratodero, as HIV tests being conducted until recently both at the Ratodero HIV Treatment Center and in the community show HIV prevalence of more than 2%.
He said: “If HIV prevalence in the general population is more than 1%, then it is considered a generalized epidemic. Dr Shah said that a rural community of about 400,000 population with more than 1000 HIV children positive is a serious challenge not for the affected community but also for the whole province and the country as well.
He said that certainly, the emergence of COVID-19 had pushed all health problems to back burner and the whole world had almost forgotten all other serious issues but Dr Shah added HIV outbreak in Ratodero which had not been contained yet needed immediate attention.
Dr Imran Akbar Arbani, who first broke the story of the availability of HIV positive children, said that HIV positive children direly needed inclusion in the federal government’s Ehsaas Kifalat Program and Insurance Policies which would not only improve their lives, but those would also bring an end of stigma and discrimination which they were facing in the society.
He said that the finance department had released 3rd and 4th quarter withheld funds under M and R works of Chief Minister’s Secretariat/House amounting to Rs 15.104 million during the current month then why endowment fund could not be released for those poverty-ridden children.