KARACHI, Dec 1: The World Aids Day passed without any major activity in the city as health professionals and organisations preferred to postpone the plans for the day due to the wave of ethnic violence that hit Karachi on Saturday.

Amid the air of uncertainty, the Sindh Aids Control Programme and other organisers of a World Aids Day walk announced on Monday morning that the event had been cancelled due to the law and order situation.

In addition the inaugural ceremony of a centre for prevention of HIV transmission from parents to child at the gynaecology and obstetrics OPD could not be held. Sindh Minister for Health Dr Sagheer Ahmad was invited as chief guest on the occasion.

A dozen of other activities, including meetings and candlelight gatherings, aimed at creating awareness about the human disability and losses of lives due to the spread of HIV infection could not be held for the same reason.

It is estimated that about 25 million people died after contracting HIV from 1981 to 2007, while about 33 million other people are living with HIV across the globe. The World Aids Day concept originated in 1988 when a world summit of health ministers decided to work for checking the spread of HIV/Aids by removing the stigma attached to Aids patients. According to reports, Pakistan is experiencing a concentrated epidemic of HIV/Aids among high risk groups, including the injecting drug users (about 21 per cent) and sex workers. The overall number of people infected with HIV is said to be between 80,000 and 100,000, while the number of such cases registered with the Aids authorities is about 2,150 in Sindh till March 2008.

Talking to Dawn, health practitioners and managers said that there was a need to enhance activities to address the increasing number of injecting drug users, who were vulnerable to the dreaded virus and its social and economic consequences due to sharing of syringes and inappropriate sexual behaviours. Efforts should also be made to promote healthy lifestyle among the IDUs and ensure their rights to health, employment and social development, they added.

Dr Sharaf Ali Shah of the Dow University of Health Sciences said that the prevalence of HIV among the male sex workers was on the rise still the HIV was being associated with drug users only while the dangers posed to the general population continued to be underestimated.

He said what the government spent on various harm reduction programmes for injecting drug users during the last four years or so was merely a waste of resources. “No isolated harm reduction activity can benefit the IDUs or their families in the absence of a comprehensive rehabilitation programme as is being ensured in Iran, Ukraine, Thailand and other countries,” he said, adding that it is the government that can undertake such projects of utility giving the IDUs chances of detoxification, counselling, education and development of skills and employment.

Prof S. Haroon Ahmad, head of the Pakistan Association for Mental Health, said the government should establish a special cell or a rehabilitation centre for detoxification of the drug users, where multidisciplinary teams could work towards harm reduction care and treatment delivery.

He expressed concern over the way drug addicts were abandoned by their families, saying that such things were only complicating the health status of the poor fellows. Just the chaining of the drug users or keeping them in the isolated halls or centre was not the answer to the problem and there was a need to introduce an integrated programme ensuring more follow-ups, including the psychological interventions, he observed.

Sindh Aids Control Programme Manager Dr Mohammad Nasir Jalbani said that all kinds of drug users should be studied to address the reasons behind the drug addiction. “We need a broad-based system under one roof comprising hospitals for physical and psychological treatments of IDUs, facilities and training for their moral boost up besides their acceptability in society,” he said.

HIV prevention centre

The SACP focal person for parents to child transmission of HIV prevention centres, Dr Sikandar Iqbal, said that the centre at civil hospital was made operational after a gap of five months without any inaugural ceremony on Monday.

Besides an exclusive room a doctor has been deputed at the centre, which had to be closed down due to some resistance five months ago. The centre meant for counselling and screening of pregnant women would also provide anti-viral therapies and ensure safe delivery of their babies at government or private hospitals.

He said Karachi had another HIV prevention centre at the Government Qatar Hospital, Orangi. So far, he said, four babies had been delivered HIV-free by the HIV-positive mothers registered with the Aids control programme.