PESHAWAR, June 8: Many people suffering from HIV/Aids, deported from foreign countries, particularly the UAE, enter Pakistan and there being no health-check system in place the carriers of the deadly disease go to their homes unnoticed.

To tackle such complexities, there is a need to set up village-based committees, comprising different stakeholders, to educate the people about the mode of transmission and motivate all those carrying the virus to be careful while dealing with their family members and to avoid donation of their blood in the community.

Health professionals were told this on the concluding day of a three-day workshop here at the directorate of health, Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, on Thursday.

The event was attended by health professionals drawn from the seven tribal agencies and Frontier Regions.

“There is an option that HIV/Aids patients, after confirmation of their disease, may get symptomatic treatment at the anti-retroviral centre at the Hayatabad Medical Complex. To avoid social taboos their names should be kept secret,” said the director, health, Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, while addressing the concluding session of the workshop.

All health professionals working in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas should keep in their minds social customs and traditions while educating the masses at the community level, he added.

He said that the entire population of the NWFP, particularly in the tribal belt, may never compromise over their customs and in such a situation health workers were supposed to be careful during delivering services at the community level.

Deputy Director Federally Administrated Tribal Areas Dr Iftikhar Ali said the number of HIV/Aids patients totalled 111, out of which 49 were registered in Kurram Agency, 27 in North Waziristan, 18 in South Waziristan, seven in Orakzai Agency, six in Khyber Agency, three in Bajaur and one had recently been traced in Mohmand Agency.

He further said that most of these patients were returnees from Dubai who had worked there as labourers.

Sharing his observation, Dr Iftikhar said that due to lack of awareness about the transmission of the disease the Pakistani labour class working in the Middle East were more vulnerable to HIV/Aids, adding that only proper information about the transmission of the disease could protect them.

He said that health workers should establish close liaison with local religious leaders and request them to educate the people about the disease.

He said that unsafe sex and tools of barbers, quacks and dentists that had not been sterilized were the main modes of transmission.

Dr Iftikhar advised the people to stay away from quacks who mostly treated patients with the help of injections, which was another main source of transmission of the disease.

Dr Saima Gulfam told participants that though they had initial information about HIV/Aids, a certain number of them were unaware about the modes of transmission of the disease, adding that now the majority of them would have a clear picture as to how the HIV/Aids virus transfers from one person to another, how a person could protect him/herself from the disease, and in case of proving positive how the patient could protect their environment from the disease.