AIDs control programme reaching fraction of K-P’s residents

UN official urges media to play its role in reaching out to people, talk about the disease

PESHAWAR: With 2030 set as the year to end HIV/AIDS from the world, a fraction of those infected with the virus are benefitting from a control programme operated by the provincial government.

There are an estimated 12,000 people who carry the virus in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). However, around 10 per cent of those, or around 2,500 patients, are registered with the government in the province. But only 1,400, including 335 from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and 155 from Afghanistan, have been benefiting from the programme with many reluctant to show up at the centres for fear of stigmatisation.

They stated that while the stigma attached to HIV had reduced over the years thanks to repeated awareness campaigns, it had not been completely rooted out. For that to happen, the media needs to play its role in changing the perception surrounding the virus.

“A lot of progress has been made, but this is not enough since the virus is continuing to progress among young people [specifically among drug users] and we have to stop the transmission of the virus,” UNAIDs Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan Dr Mamadou Sakho said on Tuesday.



He added that the people need to understand how exactly HIV spreads since it was a very complicated disease and it should be discussed today before paying its steep price tomorrow.

Moreover, he pointed out that many people were reluctant to even conduct self-tests fearing isolation if they tested positive. He added that they had once observed a similar behaviour in the case of Tuberculosis in the country.

“If you don’t do your [self] test, you do not know your status,” Sakho said.

Noting that the concerned departments the world over had been doing their jobs diligently for over 35 years, but the true solution was in talking more about the disease. “I know your [media] power and I know you will make a difference since the community needs to be mobilised,” Sakho said. K-P Additional director general health services Dr Ayub Roz stated that people were reluctant to come forward and those who had been tested positive for carrying the virus, were reluctant to seek treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2017.