By Syed Mahmood Sherazi
The United Nations Health Organization says that AIDS is a worldwide health problem that has affected 40 million people so far.
In the last two years, more than one crore(10 million) people have died due to AIDS. The outbreak of this disease started in the year 1980.In Pakistan fist Patient of HIV appear in Late 80. Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of Health established National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) in 1987. For a long time there was a misconception that being around people with HIV would make you infected. But the fact is that it is not transmitted by touching someone, tears, sweat, saliva or urine. HIV AIDS is caused by the transmission of bodily fluids such as blood, vaginal fluid or breast milk to another person.
A large number of Pakistani citizens are infected with HIV. However, there is still a lack of awareness about the causes and prevalence of HIV. Talking about this disease is still considered unhealthy because a large number of people are not aware of the full causes of this infectious disease.
Raja Khalid Mehmood, chief executive of Pakistan AIDS Control Federation, says, The number of cases reported to us in the country is not high because people are afraid to get tested. The reason is that if someone is infected with HIV and the test proves it, then a stigma is associated with them in the country. This is why when a small number of patients come forward, it is assumed that the problem is not that serious when in fact it is a very serious problem.
It is very important for people to know that the cause of AIDS is not only physical or sexual relations.There are only three ways HIV spreads in the world. One is either blood contaminated instruments or instruments such as surgical instruments or dental instruments and instruments or syringes such as re-use of used injections or tattoo needles etc. So tools, equipment that have already been used on a person infected with HIV, if they are used on someone else, the HIV virus is transmitted through the blood. Another way is sex.
Whether it is a man-woman relationship or a homosexual relationship, if one of the partners has HIV, the other person will definitely be infected. While the third reason is the child born to an infected mother. That is, if the mother has this disease, then this virus will be transmitted to the child during pregnancy, or during delivery, or if the mother is breastfeeding the child. Final figures cannot be given regarding how many victims of HIV AIDS there are in Pakistan but the number of HIV/AIDS patients worldwide has decreased, while the number of HIV/AIDS patients has increased by 75% in Pakistan.This increase occurred between 2010 and 2019. Every year 25 thousand new patients are reported in Pakistan. There has been a 32% reduction in HIV/AIDS worldwide, including India, EMRO region consists of 22 countries, these countries have the highest number of HIV/AIDS patients in Pakistan.
Experts said that the number of potentially HIV/AIDS infected patients in Pakistan is 210,000 including 41,000 women, 1,70,000 men and 4,600 children. In Pakistan, 50,000 HIV-AIDS patients are unaware of their disease, which is causing the spread of the disease.According to the report, one person was infected with HIV every two minutes worldwide last year and one person died due to AIDS every minute.
In Pakistan, 35% of people who inject drugs through syringes, 30% of female sex workers and 14% of transgender people are suffering from this virus. Experts believe that this disease is increasing rapidly due to the lack of attention of the government. Around 38.4 million people worldwide are suffering from HIV/AIDS. Last year, 650,000 people died from HIV-AIDS. Between 2010 and 2020, there was a decrease in the number of HIV-AIDS cases worldwide, while the disease is spreading rapidly in Pakistan. If Pakistan wants to become AIDS-free or prevent the spread of AIDS, then awareness about it will have to be spread, that is the remedy for this disease.
One of the main reasons for the spread of AIDS in Pakistan is the use of used syringes. In 2019, more than 1500 people contracted AIDS due to the use of used syringes in Larkana, Sindh. According to the General of Pakistan Medical Association, Pakistan is one of the countries where injections are used the most. According to the report, about 450 million syringes are imported annually, of which 30 million are used for vaccines and 10 million for insulin, while the domestic production of syringes is 744 to 804 million annually.
Complaints about the sale of substandard syringes have also been coming up in Pakistan. In a 2004 study conducted by WHO, 34% of companies were classified as substandard. For this study, syringes from 30 companies were purchased from the four provincial capitals of Pakistan by WHO, which identified substandard companies. According to a 2014 research report of the International Journal of Microbiology and Allied Sciences, hepatitis is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world, particularly in Pakistan.
The report states that seven and a half percent of Pakistan’s population is suffering from hepatitis B and C, one of the major reasons for which is the unnecessary use of injections. If the use of syringes and blood transfusions are not made safe, no one will be able to stop the spread of AIDS and other diseases in Pakistan.
