PESHAWAR: Health experts at a seminar have urged the civil society organisations and mediapersons to create awareness of the fast spreading HIV/Aids among masses to save people from the fatal disease. They said that people should contact the nearest HIV treatment and care centres for screening to get timely treatment and save their spouses and children, especially newborn babies from the disease.

The seminar was arranged in connection with the World Aids Day by the programme management unit of HIV/Aids, department of health, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, at Peshawar Press Club on Sunday. Director general health services Dr Ali Ahmed, assistant director public health (HIV/Aids) Dr Mustafa Jadoon, Abdul Jalil of Unicef and a female Aids patient spoke on the occasion.

The speakers said that every year December 1 was observed as the World Aids Day as the epidemic was expanding and had affected 35 million people worldwide. They said that Pakistan was in a concentrated phase of the epidemic which meant that HIV was concentrated among certain population groups. According to the last HIV/Aids national survey in 2011, the key affected population groups include injecting drug users (IUDs) who are 27.2 per cent of HIV-positive patients, transgender sex workers 7.2 per cent, male sex workers 1.6 per cent and female sex workers 0.6 per cent.

Sharing details, Dr Ahmed said that the latest estimates showed that there were 97,400 estimated cases of HIV/Aids in Pakistan while the HIV-positive people ever registered for treatment and care were 9,865 across the country.

Ask civil society, media to raise awareness about Aids among masses

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, the estimated number of HIV-positive people was around 16,000 while only 1,747 HIV-positive people had ever registered with the HIV treatment centres till date for care and support services. Among the registered cases 1,239 were men, 427 women and 81 children.

Giving district-wise data, he said that Peshawar was on top with 228 cases followed by Bannu with 110, Lower Dir 76, Charsadda 75, Swat 69, Upper Dir 57, Swabi 53, Hangu 45, Lakki Marwat 44, Nowshera 38, Mardan 34, Kohat 33, Buner 28, Malakand 18, Mansehra 11, Chitral eight, Karak eight, D.I Khan seven, Shangla five, Abbottabad four, Battagram four, Tank three and Kohistan one case.

Dr Jadoon said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was committed to controlling the disease in the province and for this purpose it had merged the provincial HIV/Aids control programme into the regular health system since the project PC-I ended on June 30, 2014.

He said that the department of health had declared the public health section of the directorate general of health services as programme management unit for HIV/Aids which was working in collaboration with the National Aids Control Programme and other donors and partners.

He said that two HIV treatment and care centres were operational in the province, one at Hayatabad Medical Centre and the other at Kohat district hospital, which were supposed to provide comprehensive HIV care services, including free antiretroviral therapy and free HIV diagnostics.

The female HIV-positive patient, Palwasha (original name withheld), stressed the need for creating awareness of the disease among people. “I contracted the disease due to blood transfusion after one month of my marriage, but came to know about it in 2006,” she said. The woman said that her husband extended full cooperation in her treatment and she had had two children both HIV/Aids negative. She said that her husband was also HIV/Aids negative.

She urged the men to avoid divorcing their wives and ensure conducting screening and treatment of all the family members to overcome the complications.

Published in Dawn, December 1st , 2014