The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) is providing free treatment to 864 HIV/AIDS patients in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). National Programme Manager, NACP, Abbas Zaheer said that this service is being provided through an HIV/AIDS Treatment and Care Centre established at PIMS.
He said the services being provided in this centre include free of cost voluntary HIV counselling and testing, specialised medical consultation, laboratory and radiological diagnostics, anti-AIDS medicines, antibiotics, and psychosocial support. Dr Hasan said the number of new cases being registered is on the increase and each month, 25-30 new HIV/AIDS cases arrive at PIMS.
He informed that most of these registered HIV/AIDS cases are intravenous drug users and deported migrants workers from the Middle East and their spouses and children. He said that new cases are being diagnosed at an earlier stage of infection rather than years later when the symptoms of AIDS start appearing, he said.
Early diagnosis is not only beneficial for the individual concerned but also helps check spread of HIV from the infected person to their spouse and other family members, he added. He said that over the years, the PIMS HIV Centre has evolved as a model HIV Treatment Centre in the country, providing high quality out-door and in-door treatment, care and support.
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