LAHORE: A Punjab AIDS Control Programme (PACP) spokesman has said that the HIV prevalence in the province is less than the Sustainable Development Goals targets which envisage keeping the HIV epidemic at less than 0.1 per cent.

PACP spokesman Dr Asim Altaf said here on Monday that during the last 25 years, only 12,000 patients were reported infected with HIV.

`At present, only 5,800 HIVinfected patients are registered with the PACP and they are getting free medicines,` he said.

About the performance monitoring exercises undertaken during the last one and a half years, Dr Altaf said screening centres in all 38 jails of the province were opened in addition to the high-risk districts like Chiniot, Kot Imrana, Jalapur and Multan.

In connection with the 2017 and2018 health weeks,more than900,000 people were tested for HIV, Hepatitis B, C and syphilis across Punjab.

In the 2017 health week, as many as 236,246 people were tested.

Another 667,424 persons were tested the following year and less than 200 were reported infected with HIV, he said.

`We have screened over 89,000 jail inmates for HIV, Hepatitis C, syphilis and other diseases. Among jail population, between 20 and 30pc prisoners are injecting drugs or serving term for drugs-related offences. We have catered to around 20,000 such inmates. The overall coverage in jail screening component is more than the target, standing at 112pc,` said Dr Altaf.

Through collaborative efforts with other vertical programmes, PACP has so far screened over 174,000 tubercu-losis patients for HIV against the target of 210,000.

Given the financial constraints, the PACP was still able to do low-cost outbreak investigations with the technical support of WHO in Chiniot and Kot Imrana between 2016 and 2018.

PACP has developed partnership with Akhuwat, Fountain House and the Walled City of Lahore Authority for reaching out to the marginalised groups. For analysis of epidemiological data, PACP has been working with LUMS.

Further, PACP has opened Pakistan`s first exclusive Transgenders Clinic at Fountain House. It has also partnership with Akhuwat and Walled City of Lahore Authority for transgenders` counseling and tests of people with high risk behaviour, said Dr Altaf. Staf f Reporter