World AIDs Day

There are currently around 133,529 people in Pakistan who have HIV, a figure that has increased from what was recorded last year — less than 110,000 HIV patients. This means that hundreds of thousands of people in the country are at the risk of contracting AIDs, if not provided medication on time as HIV weakens the immune system over years in the absence of any medication to the point that a patient can develop the life-threatening disease.

Though advancement in technology has made treatment for HIV more accessible, the discrimination and stigma surrounding the disease are constantly putting more lives under danger. While many patients do not seek treatment out of fear of being ostracised from their communities, stories of discrimination at the hands of health providers, especially targeting the transgender community, have also rendered the likelihood of any treatment being sorted.

On World Aids day this year it is important to highlight that efforts need to be made at the provincial and federal level to not only provide funds to develop medication and treatment, but to also educate the masses at large. Awareness campaigns should not be limited to the general public but should also cater to health providers, who are found discriminating against transgender people. The transgender community is at a higher risk of HIV owing to an inadequate access of education and health, and their limited choice of nature of work. According to a recent surveillance, an increase of 0.3 per cent of HIV patients has been recorded in transgender sex workers.

On the other hand, a large group of people making up HIV patients are drug addicts because of needle-sharing and unsafe injection of drugs. As a result, it is significant that special efforts are made to cater to this segment as their poverty further decreases their access to treatment options.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2017.

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