- A national emergency
As if the shocking revelations about the HIV outbreak in Rato Dero, Sindh last month were not enough, information from the Punjab AIDS Control Programme (PACP) has revealed a similar situation in five districts of Punjab. Around 2,800 cases have so far been reported while 70 to 90 new cases are being reported from these areas every month. It is criminal that, in order to protect themselves from the severe yet valid criticism levelled at the Sindh government, authorities in Punjab intentionally concealed information about the outbreak. The increase in the number of cases has also been attributed to the practice of public hospitals- after blood screening- turning away HIV-positive patients, forcing them to get surgeries at ill-equipped smaller private hospitals using infected surgical tools on multiple patients thus spreading the infection. Sex workers, transgenders and IV drug users have also contributed to the rising number. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pakistan has the highest HIV infection rate in the region with 20,000 cases occurring annually across the country- the figure is most likely much higher as there is little to no information coming out of other provinces like KP and Balochistan where the situation is unlikely to be less severe. The UN’s Pakistan director for the AIDS and HIV programme, commenting on the Rato Dero outbreak where three-quarters of those affected were children, termed it ‘unprecedented, having not seen anything similar in Asia’.
Reports on the epidemic and observations made by international organisations make this nothing less than a national emergency that requires immediate intervention by the state. It will require a massive effort of screening across the country. starting from the more underdeveloped areas in order to identify the affectees during the early stages of the disease to provide them with the necessary antiretroviral drugs used to manage HIV/AIDS to increase life expectancy. It is incumbent on the provincial governments to make sure that the drugs are available free of cost.
The real challenge is prevention, and that will require taking all stakeholders on board to run a countywide awareness campaign through all available mediums, in order to educate the masses who are simply unaware of what HIV is; how it is contracted and spread.
