PTI THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2005 10:22:37 AM
Pak docs to train in India for AIDS treatment
The Dr. Strangelove Behind The "Axis Of EvilDirector Goss testifies that some aspects of the illicit network remain unknown as Islamabad has rejected requests for information CIA Still Trying to Get Access to Pakistani Nuclear Scientist By...
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will send five doctors and nurses of the same number to India for specialised training to treat people living with HIV-AIDS.
India was chosen for training because of its vast experience in treating AIDS patients and due to similarity in social conditions and cost effectiveness, Pakistan's National AIDS Control Programme Manager Asma Bukhari said.
The first batch of five doctors and nurses will leave for India by the end of this month, Bukhari said in a briefing to Pakistan Secretary Health Syed Anwar Mehmood at National Insbreastute of Health.
She said United Kingdom's Department of International Development (DFID) will bear all expenses of the training.
Officially Pakistan has some 2,200 HIV positive cases off which 246 are full-blown AIDS cases.
However, health experts are sceptical of these numbers, saying government methods of counting are based on random testing of only high-risk groups - such as prosbreastutes and drug addicts - rather than the general population.
The World Health Organisation estimates that for every reported case in Pakistan, there may actually be between another hundred to 5,000 people with HIV. That means the current number of infected people could be as high as 2,00,000.
During the briefing, Mehmood also directed the national AIDS control programme officials to devise an effective awareness strategy which could have a wide ranging impact on different high-risk groups in the society.
