People in Sindh who have HIV and AIDS, especially women, are often denied admission to hospitals, including emergency wards, making them reluctant to seek treatment at public tertiary care facilities in Karachi and the rest of Sindh.
This was expressed during a meeting to review the HIV treatment centres in the province organised by the Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Directorate of HIV and AIDS in Sindh on Saturday.
It was attended by the in-charges and officials of the HIV treatment centres. They spoke about their performance and highlighted issues being faced by them and HIV patients in the province.
An HIV infected woman, who was pregnant after three miscarriages, was humiliated and derogatory remarks were passed against her being pregnant at the gynaecology ward of the Civil Hospital, Karachi. She was so upset that her family took her to a private health facility for delivery.
This case was highlighted at the international level and caused immense humiliation for the country,” an official of the directorate told the meeting, as per a report published in The News.
HIV/AIDS Sindh CDC Additional Director Dr Ershad shared that problems of access to health care for people living with HIV had come up in the meeting as the HIV treatment centre in-charges and other officials said patients faced discrimination and there were cases where they were denied treatment at tertiary-care treatment facilities.
“Either they [HIV-infected people] are not admitted to wards or they are humiliated for being infected with HIV.
In most cases, people at the top, including medical superintendents and doctors, nurses and paramedics, discriminate against the patients, which is quite alarming,” Dr Kazmi was quoted as saying.
