Talking about AIDS

Pakistan has never been good at discussing its AIDS problem. But the issue does come up each year on World AIDS Day which falls on December 1. This year, as in years before it, seminars, discussions and talk shows focused on the disease. There is generally a denial that Pakistan has a significant AIDS problem. According to official figures, less than 0.1 percent of the adult population is affected by HIV or AIDS. But in terms of numbers, this translates into a significant number of people. Government and Unicef estimates put the figure at around 97,000. There have been few reliable surveys and the numbers vary depending on which agency or organisation is putting them out. It is however clear there is an AIDS problem among specific segments of the population. The most vulnerable are Injecting Drug Users, sex workers as well as long-distance transport workers – like truckers – who have frequent contact with those working in the sex trade. The issue of AIDS concentration in particular populations was brought up in Peshawar where the deputy programme manager for the disease said that Pakistan was in a ‘concentrated phase’ of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to the figures he gave out, 27.2 percent of drug users make up the total number of AIDS cases in the country, while sex workers account for about two percent of cases.
According to UNAIDS, the future of the disease depends on how successful Pakistan is in controlling the spread of the epidemic among vulnerable groups from where it could fan out to other portions of the population. The fact that rates of Hepatitis A and B in the country are high is a warning sign. The transmission routes for HIV are similar to this disease. Experts also point out that the widespread use of injections for medical purposes, often using unsterilised needles, adds to the risk of the spread of both Hepatitis and HIV. The biggest obstacle to talking about AIDS The problem is still a taboo one and few people are aware that it is possible in this age of medical science to control the disease effectively through the use of medication, provided of course that there is an early diagnosis and an acceptance of it. The fact that those men who bring the disease home to their families frequently refuse to talk about their HIV positive status with their wives is one reflection of this silence. The disease spreads without anyone knowing. The ban placed by the country’s media regulatory authority in 2014 on a condom ad shows also how reluctant we are to address crucial issues because we consider them socially or culturally inappropriate. This is dangerous and can only lead to the growth of diseases like AIDS.