World Aids Day today

Over forty people in Sindh including men, women and children died of HIV/AIDS during the last 11 months, January to November 2011, Business Recorder learnt on Wednesday. World AIDS Day is being observed on Thursday (today). According to a report compiled by Sindh Aids Control Programme (SACP) available with Business Recorder, 36 men and four females out of total 40 died of HIV/Aids.
In addition of 40 people, the total number of people died of HIV/AIDS has reached 149, report said. Around 21 people died in 2003, five in 2004, two in 2005, only one in 2006, 10 in 2007, eight in 2008, 256 in 2009, 37 in 2010 and 40 in eleven months of 2011, report reveals. Besides, SACP has reported 104 more cases of HIV/AIDS during July-September 2011, at various government-run centers at Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana.
According to the report, ratio of HIV patients is higher than patients of AIDS. In addition with 104, total number of HIV/AIDS patients reached 4325 in the province, the report added. It is worth mentioning here that 153 HIV/AIDS patients were registered during the first quarter of 2011, from 1st January to 31st of March 2011. Of these, 146 male and four female patients were those who were HIV-positive, while three male people had the AIDS symptoms.
A number of 274 patients had been registered at various government-run-centers in the second quarter from 1st April to 30th of June 2011. According to the report, 126 patients died due to this chronic disease during these three months. The ratio of HIV patients was more than the patients of AIDS among 274 registered patients.
According to the detail, 582 HIV patients had been registered in 2003, and in 2004 the number had reached 988. In 2005, the total number reached 1229, in 2006, 1670 in 2007, 1890 in 2008, the number increased to 2271 in 2009, to 3581 and in 2010, the number of HIV positive patients had reached 3581.
The number of AIDS patients was also increasing day by day. In 2003 it was only 85, in 2004 it was 102, in 2005, it was 106, in 2006, it was 108, in 2007, it was 163, in 2008, it was 168 and in 2009, it reached at 192, the report said. Progarmme Manager SACP Dr Abdul Jabbar Shaikh told Business Recorder that SACP did not have sufficient budget to work in every nook and corner of the province, therefore, death ratio of HIV/AIDS patients has increased in 2011. The Sindh government has approved the budget to run SACP, he said adding that an awareness campaign would be launched after the Youm-e-Ashoor.