‘Karachi’s Central district has highest number of people with HIV in Sindh’

The Central district of Karachi has highest number of people living with HIV in Sindh, where 2,725 persons are found to have become infected with the viral infectious disease, communicable diseases control (CDC) officials in Sindh said on Monday.

“Karachi’s Central district has the highest number of people living with HIV in the province, while Larkana in on the second spot with 2,430 HIV positive people, of whom over 1,200 are children. Overall, Karachi has over 6,768 people living with HIV, which is the highest number of HIV infected people in the province,” Dr Irshad Kazmi, additional director, CDC (HIV/AIDS) Sindh, told a training workshop for journalists in Karachi.

The two-day interactive training, ‘Role of the Media in Strengthening HIV Response’, is being organised by the UNAIDS in collaboration with the CDC Directorate of the Sindh Health Department, UNFPA and the health committee of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) where journalists from local, regional and international media are being trained on sensitive reporting on the issues of HIV and AIDS, population, gender-based violence and sexually transmitted diseases.

Blaming the rampant use of therapeutic injections in Pakistan as one of leading causes of increasing HIV transmission in Pakistan, Dr Kazmi claimed that over 800 million therapeutic injections are given annually in Pakistan, which means that each person gets 4.5 injections per year, which is the highest in the world.

“The other major contributing factor behind increasing HIV transmission in the country is the presence of thousands of quacks, who are involved in unsafe injection practices and poor infection prevention control,” he said, adding that even the international disease control and donor agencies had blamed these two factors as the major cause of HIV outbreak among children in the Ratodero area of Larkana.

According to the expert, it is estimated that around 70,000 to 78,000 people are infected with HIV in Sindh, of whom 15,952 are registered with the CDC Directorate, and of them 13,864 -- 9,166 men, 2,461 women, 1,126 male children, 730 female children and 421 transgender persons -- are on treatment and receiving antiretroviral drugs, including.

“So far, 1,939 people infected with HIV, who were registered with the health department, have lost their lives in the province, including 1,492 men, 217 women, 131 male children, 72 female children and 27 transgender persons,” he said.

Urging media to resort to positive, objective and ethical reporting, Dr Kazmi maintained that due to unsafe injection practices and poor infection prevention and control issues, there could be a large number of people infected with HIV without knowing their status. He urged the media to encourage high-risk people to get themselves tested for the infectious disease so that they could avail the treatment.

“HIV infection is treatable and hundreds of people infected with HIV are living normal lives by taking regular medicines. Medicines for the HIV treatment are being provided free of charge to the patients registered with us,” he added.

Newly-appointed UNAIDS Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan Ms Yuki Takemoto said the role of media is extremely important in removing stigma attached to HIV and discrimination being faced by the HIV positive people as it is depriving them of living a normal life, seeking medical assistance and having respect in their societies.

“The role of media is not only to inform but also to educate and form public opinion. Media has the knowledge and expertise to achieve the goal of ending stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV,” Yuki Takemoto said, adding that they were seeking to have partnership with local media to deal with HIV by 2030.

UNAIDS experts Fahmida Khan and Dr Rajwal Khan shared the statistics of Pakistan, and using the multimedia presentations and data they urged the journalists to play their role in helping people living with HIV.

Infectious diseases experts as well as senior journalists, experts from the UNFPA would speak to working journalists on issues related to HIV treatment facilities, gender-based violence, prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases as well as issues related to Pakistan on the closing session on Tuesday.