According to a UN report, a girl aged between 15 and 19 years is infected with HIV every three minutes. Much of the transmission of the HIV virus among young girls is credited to forced and early sex, powerlessness in negotiating sex, and poverty. The statistics are disconcerting for Pakistan as HIV infections have been on the rise in the country. Additionally, the reasons cited for transmission are relevant to women in Pakistani society which is subjected to a male-dominated cultural arrangement. Provincial AIDS control programmes are requested to accelerate the pace of their work, keeping in mind that women empowerment would greatly help reduce the negative health statistics.
As of 2017, the UNAIDS organisation reports a 45% change in the number of new HIV infection cases in Pakistan since 2010. According to the same report, while most of the 140,000 adults aged 15 and above are men living with HIV, 43,000 of them are women. Non-consensual sex is most tragically a problem as is women’s inability to negotiate intimacy with a partner, owed to our patriarchal and closed culture. Furthermore, the AIDS problem is averred to affect impoverished and second-class groups, which again, would include women in Pakistan, next to sex workers and drug abusers. A basic sex education class generally covers sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) but since sex education remains unpopular and excluded from most school curricula, knowledge about STDs among adolescents and adults remains low. Thus, an awareness campaign would be beneficial to curtailing the spread of HIV. Improved hygiene practices would also greatly help mitigate spread of disease. This includes safe needle practices.
A girl between 15 and 19 years of age being infected with HIV every three minutes means the prevalence can rapidly spiral to an unmanageable level. While treatment should be a focus, authorities must also put more emphasis on prevention. Prevention is better that cure.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2018.
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