T HIS refers to the news report `HIV satellite centre to be established in Sehwan`. The project director of Sindh AIDS control programme has been quotedas saying: `HIV was curable as it was caused by a virus` and `there are an estimated 65,000 HIV patients in Pakistan.
This is incorrect. HIV is not curable and is a lifelong illness for which medicines (antiretroviral drugs) have to be taken for life. The patient can progress towards acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which is a condition in which the HIV positive person becomes symptomatic and there is always a medical possibility of death if complications cannot be controlled.
Most current research is looking into a `functional cure` where HIV is reduced to undetectable and harmless levels in the body permanently. However, some residual virus still remains.
Second, Pakistan`s estimated figures for those infected with the HIV virus are not 65,000 but 165,000, clearly mentioned on the National AIDS Control Programme website and 160,000 on UNAIDS Pakistan country profile.
