GWADAR: Over 300 people were confirmed to be HIV positive in Turbat town of Makran division, it emerged on Saturday.

According to a monthly report, 310 people have been tested positive for HIV. Of them, 250 hailed from Kech, 31 from Lasbela, 27 from Gwadar and one each from Awaran and Panjgur.

Turbat District Health Officer Dr Farooq Rind said all the 310 patients had been registered at Kech HIV Treatment Centre.

Till last month, 107 patients were under treatment at the Kech HIV Treatment Centre, according to the report.

They had been infected with HIV due to several reasons, said Dr Rind. “Some got HIV because of sharing needles and other injection equipment to inject drugs and quite a few because of sexual transmission.”

Pakistan is a considered a low-prevalence country for HIV but in recent days news of 282 children and adults (as of May 9) allegedly infected by an HIV positive doctor in Larkana, Sindh, has made the headlines.

On Friday, 56 more suspected cases of HIV were detected in Ratodero, Sindh.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2019