Its about time: HIV program in Pakistan

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

Social taboo or not, the issue needs to be dealt with, and finally something is being done about it. Honestly Pakistani society hides behind the curtain or veil of religion to ignore all the illicit or immoral (depending on your view point) actions undertaken by the youth today.

Pakistan according to the UN Drug Programme has the largest druggie population under 18 in the world. Hard drugs are the rich mans pleasure and their kids…lets not even go there. There are other taboo subjects that need to be tackled like pre-martial intercourse etc. However this is a start.

With a large drug addicted population the chance for AIDs spreading are high. This honestly is the right step. Question is has it come to late?

2

Pakistan launches Aids programme

I’m not sure if this is a right move or not. I feel, that we have other areas in health care which requries more urgent attention than AIDS in The Land of Pure…

Pakistan has launched a big programme to tackle Aids after denying that the country has a problem. Recorded cases of Aids and HIV infection are small compared to Pakistan’s neighbour, India. Until recently many government and religious leaders argued that was because of the moral and ethical values enshrined in the Muslim way of life. Now they are waking up to the possibility that prevalence could sky-rocket, like in other Muslim countries. According to the latest statistics, the prevalence of HIV infection in Pakistan is small - 70,000-80,000 people, of whom just over 2,000 officially have Aids.

3

Well it is a welcome decision. The AIDS epidemic has will wreak havoc in our Eastern neighbor, so awareness and prevention are a must. Iran and China have active programs, so it is a good idea for Pakistan, as well.

I think Zulfi raises an important point about other diseases requiring attention, however this is a disease that CAN be prevented by avoiding high risk activities. Other infectious and transmittable diseases whether blood or airborne must be given their due share in these awareness programs.

4

Interesting thread. i believe that the cases of HIV/Aids in Pakistan, comparatively speaking when you look across at the region and its neighbours, are 'small'. That means that this is the BEST time to be starting a war against the spread of HIV. We should not wait until we have a full-blown epidemic on our hands. Prevention is a thousand, nay a million, times better than the cure. Let's not stick our heads in the sand and say, this won't happen to us - let's learn our lessons from other countries' governments who stated the same thing. It happened to them. Botswana, i believe, started an HIV education campaign twenty years ago - they didn't wait until they had an out-of-control HIV scenario in their society. They acted defensively, and now it is one of the few countries in the world that can boast of bringing some of its HIV rates down. If Pakistan can learn the same lessons, then we will ALL, especially Pakistanis, be the better off for it.

Just my two cents.

5

good idea, i wonder when MMA woulf find it gher ikhlaqi.
When teh first set of equipment to detest HIV was brought in by PWA, patients welfare association, a non profit volunteer run group established by med students at DMC. jamiaat at that time had protested that by bringing this equipment PWA is supporting gher ikhaqi things etc etc.

Its is good to see that things are changing and that programs are being established.

6

Well we need them. The amount of drug intake and abuse in Pakistan is on the rise with light knowledge among the younger population about its ill effects. Honestly we are atleast a decade or 2 behind the rest of the world. It was cool to do drugs in the 70s nd 80s. Not now. Yet its cool to do drugs now in Pakistan. Will we ever catch up?

I agree there are other diseases that need to be tackled, but those dont have the possibility of infecting the population rapidly. AIDS is unstoppable, unlike most other common diseases, once people have it, its hard to stop it from spreading. So i guess they want to nip it in the bud, which most likely wont work, as they have been denying its exsistance of a decade now. So the figures are going to sky-rocket very soon.

7

timely thread..

Interestingly, I am heading one of the projects in my city (on a small scale) funded by UNDP on 'HIV/AIDS and Mobility in South Asia' and I did mention in one of my replies to the "Illegal migrants" thread that Pakistan might be a low prevalence country as far as the presence of virus is concerned; however, the conditions and the risk behaviors that might lead to an epidemic are all present in our society... from homosexuality to the use of drugs to the use of infected and used syringes and not to forget the blood transfusion that takes place (not all the blood that is sold is screened for HIV/AIDS). Nonetheless efforts are underway.

Well, HIV/AIDS isn't just about having sex with multiple partners alone , though that accounts for a large number of cases in Pakistan as well but the drug problem as CM very rightly mentioned is the worse in Pakistan in the entire South Asian region which became worst after the Afghan war. Add to this the military governments clamp down on these drug addicts that you would find pufing/inhaling afheem/charas and what not on every nook and corner in Karachi has led them to inject the drugs that has increased their vulnerablity to HIV/AIDS and Hepititis B and C as well. Hence, sadly :-( there is arise of 'injecting drug users' iun our country and there have been HIV positive cases, reported in the interior Sindh among drug users who were randomly picked by people from the Sindh NAtional AIDS Control Program.

Sindh is the worst hit and KArachi being the metropolis needs urgent and prompt action as far as creating awareness on such issues is concerned...the presence of host of vulnerabilities and risky behavioral patterns demand urgent attention... and luckily we do have this opportunity to tackle this issue before it hits us the way it did many South East Asian countries and even India.... khair, lets see ..... we really need to open up when it comes to the discussion on such issues...

8

Hey no, we aren't late to respond to this impending crisis, CM.. Infact, Pakistan's response was prompt and considerable forsight was shown despite the fact that we didn't face any immediate threat... as early as, I believe 1986-7...BUT due to the financial constraints and the issue being considered a taboo in the our country, it couldn't take off.

The first ever cases that were reported were of the people who came back or were deported on account of being HIV + from the Gulf States. Now, sadly these peple themselves did not have much idea as to what the state of affairs was or how not to aid in the further spread of the virus or take preventive measures and this also resulted in their families (spouse and kids) getting the virus...

9

Excellent organization from what i have heard and they are doing a job that very few would ever want to do.

More on the life of someone with AIDS in Pakistan: http://www.youandaids.org/Features/PakistanLWAIDS.asp

10

I've been listening to BBC radio's programmes on AIDS this week and it has been a real eye opener. Most muslim countries (including Pakistan), have a small window of opportunity here right now to shut down aids, as it is primarily spread amongst the drug user community within these nations. These drug users are generall not sexually active. However, the rate of sexually transmitted HIV is rising in Muslim nations, and programmes need to be undertaken to stop the spread whilst it's still a small issue, before it becomes an epidemic.

A problem particular to Muslim countries is how HIV positive people attempt to hide their condition rather than seek treatment and avoid spreading it further. This means that a man, for example, who contracts HIV through a visit to one of Pakistan's many illegal, hidden brothels might know that something is wrong with him, might go to a doctor and get diagnosed, but refuse to do anything about it for fear of others finding out. He then would pass the disease on to his wife, and through his wife his future children may get it.... etc.

I truly hope that Pakistan's anti-Aids programme will not consist of condom issuage, which would just encourage immoral behaviour, but rather focus on education and getting people to change behaviour patterns that spread AIDS.

Most importantly, to nip this in the bud, the drug users have to be stopped from spreading AIDS. Getting them to stop using drugs would be ideal, but in no country have such programmes proved to be 100% effective. At worst, we have to ensure that drug users don't share needles.

In addition Pakistan's anti-immorality laws must be rigidly enforced to track down, punish, and isolate those who are immorally sexually active.

By helping the drug user commmunity and protecting them from contracting and spreading AIDS, and cracking down efficiently and ruthlessly on immoral sexual behaviour, AIDS can be stopped before it becomes a problem on the scale of that in Africa and India,

11

CM, I think the campaign was initiated in 1995, I remember how aids hotlines were set up (dialing 123), and mass awareness programms, usually on TV and radio were broadcasted, but still youre right about the society hiding this issue...