AIDS Patients in Pakistan Launch Fight for Better Treatment

In Parachinar, Amina Bibi is launching an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and considers it a personal challenge to help remove stigma associated with the disease in Pakistan. Bibi's husband, who infected her with HIV, died of AIDS last year. “In such a depressing situation, I feel bound to lead from the front and open some outlets to give a ray of hope to the people living with the disease,” she said.

Since 1990, Pakistan's National AIDS Control Program has recorded 1,897 HIV cases and 244 AIDS cases. “The real figures might increase terribly, if all people were tested for HIV, but the problem is that people feared to be tested for HIV, because of the public outcry,” said Dr. Quaid Saeed, the World Health Organization's emergency medical officer in Pakistan.

The country launched a five-year program in 2003 to reduce HIV transmission through unscreened blood, by sex workers and by needle sharing. Yet, none of Pakistan's four provinces has a functioning HIV/AIDS clinic. As a result, said Saeed, HIV patients do not get the treatment they need and regular hospitals lack the facilities and knowledge to treat them. Bibi is calling on the government to open treatment centers in Pakistan's public hospitals and offer antiretroviral drugs to HIV patients.

Sexologist Dr. Muzaffar Tareen noted that because of the stigma associated with STDs, HIV/AIDS patients in need of treatment avoid public-sector hospitals. “The situation is alarming,” said Tareen, adding that patients have been diagnosed with HIV while seeking treatment for other illnesses.

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