PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has claimed to have controlled transmission of HIV from mother to child as it has recorded only one infected baby out of the total 78 deliveries by the infected mothers.

It is the lowest ratio in any province of the country that has been achieved through enforcement of successful strategies including screening, counseling and treatment.

`We have two antiretroviral therapy centres, on each at Hayatabad Medical Complex and Kohat, where 1,400 HIV patients are under treatment. We have planned to start new centre at divisional level in Abbottabad,Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Batkhela to enable the patients to get facilities in their own districts,` said Dr Ayub Roz, the additional director-general health services.

He said that one-third of the patients were women and 100 were children.

Addressing a seminar, organised by health department in collaboration with the UNAIDS here on Tuesday, he said that they had registered 2,750 patients but the estimated number of infected people was about 12,000 in the province.

`We are facing difficulty in identification of patients because of the stigma associated with the diseases as most people are under misconception that it is caused only by illicit sex relations,` said Dr Ayub.

He said that modes of transmission of hepatitis and HIV were the same.

`We should scale up public awareness level to be able to locate infected people and provide them the desired facilities. The patients shouldn`t be lool(ed down upon.The ailment doesn`t spread through handshake or sharing utensils but through blood contact,` he said.

Dr Saleem Khan, project director of integrated programme for HIV/Aids, polio and thalassaemia, said that role of media was significant to highlight the causes of the disease and inform people regarding its causative agents.

He said that government had approved a PC-1 of Rs500 million for the integrated programme and prevention of HIV, polio and thalassaemia.

`We urge media to raise awareness of the people so that the HIV patients get sympathies,` he said.

He added that the infected people could work like normal people but they needed to get registered with the government.

`We need full-scale measures at the community level to stem tide of the ailment. The results of the surveys conducted in 2005, 2011 and 2016 were alarming. We need to spread much-needed awareness,` said Dr Saleem.

Dr Mamadou L. Sakho, UNAIDS country directorfor Pakistan andAfghanistan, termed the disease as highly dangerous and urged the government for political commitment to control it from snowballing into major health issue.

`We demand of the government mobilisation of resources and enlisting support of the civil society, religious and community leaders to reduce the burden of the complicated sickness,` he said. He added that the infected people should be traced and given quality treatment.

Dr Mamadou said that injecting drug users were a big issue in the country, warranting immediate attention and solid measures.

`Pakistan has 23 ARV centres where the patients are being provided with diagnostic and treatment services free of cost,` he said.

The new strategy to tackle the problem is `treatment for all`.

`We appeal to parliamentarians and media people to disseminate information about the causes and prevention of the disease and removing misconceptions so that people could start self-testing, said Dr Mamadou.