Pakistan's Plague in the Making

With one of the highest rates of drug use in the world, Pakistan could be on the verge of an HIV epidemic, health experts worry. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates 6 million Pakistanis in a population of 162 million are drug users, a figure that is rising by approximately 7 percent a year. But the larger concern is that an increasing number of them are injecting drugs.

Pakistan has around 500,000 chronic heroin and IV drug users (IDUs), says UNODC. In Lahore, 65 percent of addicts inject drugs, according to UNAIDS.

The World Health Organization says the HIV transmission rate among IDUs in Pakistan is 10 percent. However, a study conducted by Roshan Rasta, a national group that addresses HIV/AIDS and drug use, found HIV infections among a cohort of 100 IDUs in Punjab rose from two to 50 over the last two years. And in a UNAIDS survey of IDUs in Punjab, 64 percent said they did not use sterile syringes.

Once HIV takes hold among IDUs, many Pakistani physicians believe it will spread rapidly through the general population. "Once it comes, it will spread like wildfire," said Aamir Mirza, a psychiatrist who treats heroin addicts at Gangaram Hospital in Lahore.

The government is struggling to control Pakistan's rising drug problem. Public funding of affordable and effective rehabilitation programs is lacking. An additional challenge: Pakistan's government has banned methadone as a treatment for recovering opiate addicts.

Back to other news for April 2008

Search the Newsroom archive