Islamabad, May 8 (IANS). More than 20,000 of the 84,000 registered people infected with HIV in Pakistan have gone “missing” after starting antiretroviral therapy, raising concerns about the potential spread of the infection.
According to an editorial in Pakistan’s leading daily newspaper ‘The Express Tribune’, Pakistan has emerged as one of the fastest growing hotspots of the HIV epidemic in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region. The region includes 22 countries in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia.
It further said that in the last 15 years, there has been a massive 200 percent increase in new infections. Their number has increased from 16,000 in 2010 to 48,000 in 2024.
What is even more worrying is that public awareness campaigns and harm reduction strategies have failed to achieve any meaningful results, the report also said.
It also said that the 84,000 people registered are only a small part of the estimated 3,69,000 people living with HIV across the country and with this large population not receiving treatment, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify who falls into the ‘high-risk’ group.
The Express Tribune reported, “Although unsafe sex and intravenous drug use through used needles are still the main sources of infection, other medical routes, such as unsafe injection methods, unsterilised blood transfusions, weak infection prevention measures and rampant quacks, are leading to the spread of infection among children and spouses.”
Stating that children are one of the most affected groups. The number of new infections in the 0-14 age group is projected to increase from 530 in 2010 to 1,800 in 2023. “In several hotspots of infection, including Larkana, Taunsa and Hyderabad, children accounted for more than 80 per cent of the newly identified cases. Despite the spread of these infections, restricted reusable syringes are still available in the market and blood bank regulations are not properly followed,” the report said.
The report said that the ‘National AIDS Control Programme’, which is largely dependent on external help, is now seriously suffering from ‘shortage of funds and staff’. Even $800,000 worth of donated materials have been stolen by corrupt locals.
Earlier this week, a report revealed that the rapid rise in HIV cases in Pakistan is not a slowly growing public health concern, but a systemic failure that is unfolding in real time. A report details how children and at-risk people are becoming infected with HIV not because of their own behavior, but through the health care system that is supposed to protect them.
An editorial in Pakistan’s leading daily newspaper ‘Dawn’ states that two types of failures are working together behind this situation. It said, “The first failure is the complete collapse of basic infection control measures across large parts of our healthcare network. The second failure is the continued repeated use of syringes, while the use of traditional disposable syringes was banned across the country in 2021. Both of these failures have combined to create a situation that experts describe as a ‘human-caused epidemic’. Whatever evidence has been found of this, it is extremely worrying.”
–IANS
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