World's HIV/AIDS Day and Pakistan

December 01, bring together people from around the world to create awareness about HIV/AIDS. According to WHO (World Health Organization), the theme from 2011 - 2015 will be: "Getting to Zero: zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths".

Accroding to the UN reports, Pakistan has 98,000 HIV/AIDS infected patients but the official numbers of Pakistan government states that 4,000 people are infected. I remember that the first HIV/AIDS infected woman's story was covered in 1984 in the widely circulated Jang Group of News. The woman who contracted HIV/AIDS from her husband ( a migrant worker from Pakistan), was thrown in Jail in solitary confinement.

HIV/AIDS in Pakistan goes unreported because of many social taboos associated with the disease. It is widely believed that HIV/AIDS reached Pakistan via migrant workers in overseas countries who contracted HIV/AIDS due to unprotected sexual contact (both homosexual and hetro sexual)* while living overseas. When these men returned to Pakistan (who got married or were already married ), they transmitted AIDS to their wives.  Other important source of spread of HIV/ AIDS in Pakistan include the blood transfusions and inoculation practices, unsafe use of needles in formal and informal healthcare sectors, contaminated sygringes, paid blood donars, engaging in high-risk practices and low levels of public awareness about HIV/AIDS.

In another study high rate of both internal (rural to urban) and external (overseas) migration in Pakistan are exposing men in blue collar jobs to HIV/AIDS (as they have casual sex relations to commercial sex workers). For details read this very comprehensive paper here.

Pakistan’s successive governments have discouraged publicity campaigns to raise awareness about contraception. Hence, the use of barrier methods in sexual intercourse, including condoms, is unfamiliar to the vast majority of the population.

In Pakistan, HIV/AIDS. is a hush hush issue. I have never seen a public campaign on TV about it. Our TV screens are adorned with all sort of usless and messageless programs that either provocate or sensationalize 'non-issues' but they hardly focus of 'real issues' Pakistan is facing today...the MOST POWERFUL meduim that has totally failed to educate people today. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that the HIV/AIDS patients must be humiliated and treated as criminal in this country rather than someone to sympathize with.

There is a common assumption that we Pakistanies will NOT have HIV/AIDS for the mere fact that we belong to an Islamic society or we are muslims at large...but how much have we absorbed from the basic teachings of Islam in any other aspect? Extra marital or pre-marital sex is not allowed in Islam and hence, not enough efforts have been made for the awareness on such a serious issue and accomplices include: political, educational and religious leaders in Pakistan. Today, we are plagued with many evils which we used to associate 'only with the West' or 'non-muslim countries' and if the attitude will NOT change , this continious denial will snowball into an uncontrolable problem.