Social-Medical-Cultural Backwardness in Pakistan
"Unless these quack doctors, barbers and dentists are not checked, the number of incidents of H.I.V. infection will continue going up."
Dr. Imran Akbar Arbani, local doctor
"It was devastating."
"At the beginning, there was attention and an outcry, the patients were in the spotlight."
"Now, they are nearly forgotten."
Gulbahar Shaikh, 44, television journalist, Ratodero
 |
Guilbahar Shaikh's two-year-old daughter s among those children who have contracted the virus that leads to AIDs. The city in which he lives is recognized as among Pakistan's poorest, with 200,000 residents. Close to 900 children in the city were suffering raging fevers early in the year that attempted treatment failed to resolve. By April the mysterious illness was recognized as H.I.V., an outbreak that overwhelmingly affected children.
At first a pediatrician, Muzaffer Ghanghro, was accused by health officials as being responsible for the outbreak, claiming he reused syringes from one patient to another. As time went on, 1,100 people -- one in every 200 residents -- tested positive for the virus and close to 900 of them are under age twelve. A high enough number to be declared an urgent emergency, but held to be under-reported. Mr. Ghanghro was arrested, charged with negligence, manslaughter and causing intentional harm.
Health authorities are now of the opinion that the man being charged with causing the outbreak is only one among many practising a negligent form of medicine absent critical hygiene, transferring viral pathogens from one person to another. According to visiting health workers, it was a common sight to witness doctors reusing syringes and I.V. needles. And they too are not alone in this type of malpractice where barbers too reuse razors on multiple customers.
And then there are the city's dentists who use unsterilized dental tools on their patients' mouths. In fact, it is not only Ratodero but the entire nation that has seen an increase in cases of H.I.V. when at the same time the global community has seen a generalized decline of new infections. In Pakistan between 2010 and 2018, numbers of H.I.V.-positive patients nearly doubled to an estimated 160,000.
Clinics operated by unqualified doctors and illegal blood banks, many of them reusing syringes, were shut down. The situation has resulted in people taking aim on their family members who have been diagnosed with the virus. One man strangled his H.I.V.-positive wife to death while a month later in another town residents saw their neighbour tied to a tree by her family when she had tested positive, because the family wanted to prevent her from spreading the virus.
Labels: H.I.V. Epidemic, Health, Medical Hygiene, Medical Practices, Pakistan
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, November 07, 2019
<< Home