Clinic run by bank official for 20 years in Mirpurkhas sealed

KARACHI: Provincial health authorities have claimed to have closed down a healthcare establishment being run by a serving official of a development bank in Mirpurkhas who was cheating people for last 20 years by claiming to be health practitioner, as 29 more HIV positive cases were reported from Larkana on Wednesday.“We raided a clinic in the Digri,Mirpurkhas where an official of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited was running a clinic for last 20 years. Claiming to be an MBBS doctor and health specialist, the quack was playing with the lives of people,” an official of the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC), who is leading anti-quack operation in interior of Sindh told The News on Wednesday.International health agencies including UNAIDS have blamed quacks for spreading HIV in Ratodero, Larkana by repeated sharing of needles and syringes infecting 507 people including 410 children since April 25, 2019.The SHCC official said the quack, identified as Muhammad Aslam Qaimkhani, was an employee of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited but for last 20 years, he was also running a clinic by posing himself as “Dr M.A Khan”. He used to prescribe all type of medicines and even perform small surgical procedures at his clinic. Interestingly, the quack fled from his clinic when the team asked him to show his documents, the SHCC official said. Furthermore, he said a large number of area people turned up at the clinic in support of the quack and tried to prevent the officials from sealing the healthcare establishment.“But we have sealed the clinic and police is searching for the quack”, the official said, adding they have sought details from Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and other institutions about the quack.In a related development, Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC) claimed to have closed down around 600 healthcare establishments in Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Tando Adam and adjoining areas and announced to widen their crackdown against quacks in all the five divisions of Sindh in the days to come to get people rid of menace of quackery.“We have closed 150 more healthcare establishments during last two days as part of our ongoing campaign against quacks in the province and so far the number of such clinics, labs and facilities sealed by us has crossed 600,” said Dr. Ayaz Mustafa, Director Anti-Quackery of SHCC. They also claimed to have confiscated several hundred thousand more used syringes from the healthcare establishments from Mirpurkhas and Tando Adam, saying business of hospital waste, especially reused syringes is emerging as a major source of income for quacks who were providing these syringes and needles to others in the province as well as to drug users.On the other, teams of dental directorate of the DG Sindh inspected dozens of dental clinics run by quacks in Larkana and adjoining talukas and reported them to SHCC, which sent them their teams to seal them, Director General Health Sindh Dr. Masood Solangi said. Dr. Solangi said their teams are visiting far flung areas of the province in search of quacks spreading HIV and other lethal infectious diseases.

from The News International - National http://bit.ly/2HydJd9