HIV cases.

IN a shocking development, 18 new HIV-positive cases were detected by the Sindh AIDS Control Programme during examinations in Larkana district.

The list of new cases included children as young as 16 months. It is suspected that medical quackery is behind the sudden outbreak, and this would not be the first time.

Larkana is also said to be one of the districts in Sindh with the highest number of HIV/AIDS patients.

In total, Sindh had an estimated 60,000 HIV-positive patients by August 2018, according to a report submitted by the Ministry of National Health Services to a three-member bench of the Supreme Court. That was the same month that Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah prematurely declared that the Sindh government had successfully controlled the spread of HIV/AIDS through the use of effective awareness drives.

However, by November 2018, a total of 889 new HIV-positive cases had been reported in the province in a mere six-month time frame.

Similarly, the number of HIV-infected patients had risen to over 5,000 by the end of last year in Balochistan. According to the NHS report, there are an estimated 150,000 HIV-positive patients in Pakistan: 75,000 in Punjab; 15,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In Sargodha alone, which has been in the news for several outbreaks of HIV/AIDS, 869 people were diagnosed with the condition in the past 10 years.

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