International AIDS Day: If only they knew!
UNAIDS estimates around 4.7 million adults living with HIV in Asia, approximately 35 per cent of whom are women.
Thirty-year-old Surayya (not her real name) didn’t know what was coming her way when she had first waved her husband goodbye to a foreign land for a bright future. Little did she know that this flight to seemingly greener pastures would lead her into darkness, into the life of a pariah — an outcast.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this. I was a good wife, a good daughter-in-law and a good mother. Now I am an untouchable!” A lonesome tear traces down the face of Surayya as she recalls the last gift her husband gave her — human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Surraya’s husband, an expatriate migrant worker, is among as many as over 90,000 Pakistanis (according to surveillance reports on AIDS) who have fallen prey to the HIV virus. He is also among the 5,600 who succumbed to the disease.
It is owing to his ignorance that his wife is now part of a social sub group with HIV/AIDS. The prevalence being more significant amongst intravenous (IV) drug users, sex workers (especially male and transgender), truck drivers and migrant workers, though.
“HIV positive cases are on the rise. Most are silent carriers especially the migrant workers who are unaware of their exposure and avoid screening procedures upon return,” says Dr Shaheen Shoaib, Associate Professor Pathology, Dow International Medical College (DIMC), Karachi. “Time bombs on foot; they are ticking away as they infect more and more people around them,” she adds.
While lack of awareness regarding AIDS still prevails there is an urgent need to direct efforts towards the latter from a basic level. Dr M Iqbal Afridi, Head of Department of Psychiatry, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), says “Education regarding reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS and its other modes of transmission should be made part of the curriculum.” Even UNAID’s (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) report on global AIDS epidemic counts ‘young people’s knowledge’ among one of the main indicators for monitoring progress towards halting and beginning to reverse the HIV epidemic.
“It is like being in a state of war. The steadily increasing prevalence of HIV needs to be countered in every possible way. Social workers, NGOs, doctors, media and religious scholars – all must play a role in spreading awareness among the masses,” adds Afridi.
Betrayed by her husband, rebuked by her family to the extent of putting her chastity to question, eventually to be ostracised, what hurts Surayya the most is the fact that she could have averted all this, had only she known. However, according to Dr Rafiq Khanani, Associate Professor of Pathology and Director of Dow Diagnostic Research and Reference Lab, (DIMC), “Knowing alone is not enough though.” Moreover, knowledge without empowerment to practice is incomplete, he explains.
Categorically sliced either by gender or economic status, there are sections of the society that do not enjoy this luxury of empowerment. “Sex workers especially females lack negotiation skills and eventually suffer abuse. Besides, it is mostly the lower socio economic strata that endure this virus, with restricted options, putting up a fight against the HIV is a choice they don’t have,” Khanani reveals.
This year the International AIDS Day on December 1 came with the underlying theme of ‘Universal Access and Human Rights’ for people like Surayya who suffer at the hands of ignorance and get caught up in this deadly spiral unsuspectingly. The theme will reinforce ever more on raising awareness on this silent creeper and make the wakeup call in places where the horn hasn’t yet been blown. “We need to raise standards of the blood transfusion protocols and screening programmes across the country,” believes Dr Shaheen. While Afridi suggests that HIV patients must be encouraged to see life on the other side of AIDS. “Efforts should be made to make them useful members of the society. We need to raise the value of life,” he says.
In this context, Khanani is of the view that a lot has been achieved through previous programmes and more can be achieved if the international community cooperates and collaborates. “By changing attitudes and creating an environment of empowerment, we need to raise the belief that we can,” says Khanani.
In the end it all simmers down to ‘raising our voice’ this day and get the word across so that no one falls prey to this death trap or is left untreated just because they did not know.
While the world commemorated hope and resolve against AIDS on this day, Surayya sat aloof in a shelter looking out to an uncertain future. “If only I knew!” she says and looks away.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2010.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this. I was a good wife, a good daughter-in-law and a good mother. Now I am an untouchable!” A lonesome tear traces down the face of Surayya as she recalls the last gift her husband gave her — human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Surraya’s husband, an expatriate migrant worker, is among as many as over 90,000 Pakistanis (according to surveillance reports on AIDS) who have fallen prey to the HIV virus. He is also among the 5,600 who succumbed to the disease.
It is owing to his ignorance that his wife is now part of a social sub group with HIV/AIDS. The prevalence being more significant amongst intravenous (IV) drug users, sex workers (especially male and transgender), truck drivers and migrant workers, though.
“HIV positive cases are on the rise. Most are silent carriers especially the migrant workers who are unaware of their exposure and avoid screening procedures upon return,” says Dr Shaheen Shoaib, Associate Professor Pathology, Dow International Medical College (DIMC), Karachi. “Time bombs on foot; they are ticking away as they infect more and more people around them,” she adds.
While lack of awareness regarding AIDS still prevails there is an urgent need to direct efforts towards the latter from a basic level. Dr M Iqbal Afridi, Head of Department of Psychiatry, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), says “Education regarding reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS and its other modes of transmission should be made part of the curriculum.” Even UNAID’s (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) report on global AIDS epidemic counts ‘young people’s knowledge’ among one of the main indicators for monitoring progress towards halting and beginning to reverse the HIV epidemic.
“It is like being in a state of war. The steadily increasing prevalence of HIV needs to be countered in every possible way. Social workers, NGOs, doctors, media and religious scholars – all must play a role in spreading awareness among the masses,” adds Afridi.
Betrayed by her husband, rebuked by her family to the extent of putting her chastity to question, eventually to be ostracised, what hurts Surayya the most is the fact that she could have averted all this, had only she known. However, according to Dr Rafiq Khanani, Associate Professor of Pathology and Director of Dow Diagnostic Research and Reference Lab, (DIMC), “Knowing alone is not enough though.” Moreover, knowledge without empowerment to practice is incomplete, he explains.
Categorically sliced either by gender or economic status, there are sections of the society that do not enjoy this luxury of empowerment. “Sex workers especially females lack negotiation skills and eventually suffer abuse. Besides, it is mostly the lower socio economic strata that endure this virus, with restricted options, putting up a fight against the HIV is a choice they don’t have,” Khanani reveals.
This year the International AIDS Day on December 1 came with the underlying theme of ‘Universal Access and Human Rights’ for people like Surayya who suffer at the hands of ignorance and get caught up in this deadly spiral unsuspectingly. The theme will reinforce ever more on raising awareness on this silent creeper and make the wakeup call in places where the horn hasn’t yet been blown. “We need to raise standards of the blood transfusion protocols and screening programmes across the country,” believes Dr Shaheen. While Afridi suggests that HIV patients must be encouraged to see life on the other side of AIDS. “Efforts should be made to make them useful members of the society. We need to raise the value of life,” he says.
In this context, Khanani is of the view that a lot has been achieved through previous programmes and more can be achieved if the international community cooperates and collaborates. “By changing attitudes and creating an environment of empowerment, we need to raise the belief that we can,” says Khanani.
In the end it all simmers down to ‘raising our voice’ this day and get the word across so that no one falls prey to this death trap or is left untreated just because they did not know.
While the world commemorated hope and resolve against AIDS on this day, Surayya sat aloof in a shelter looking out to an uncertain future. “If only I knew!” she says and looks away.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2010.