ISLAMABAD, 4 December (IRIN) - Coinciding with the World AIDS Day, the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has launched Pakistan's first association of people
living with HIV/AIDS. "So far, only a few individual NGOs with limited capacity were providing support to people living with HIV/AIDS, but there was no association in Pakistan, whereas most of the
countries in the region have established their associations a while ago," Fawad Haider, a UNAIDS programme officer, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.The overall objective of the
association has been described as providing a platform to the Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to voice their concerns and to build their capacities to fight against the stigma and
discrimination through improved knowledge of HIV/AIDS. The South Asian nation is currently classified to be in the 'concentrated epidemic' stage by the definitions of the World Health Organization
(WHO) and UNAIDS, where the number of new cases of HIV infection continues to rise. According to Pakistan's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), a total of some 3,393 HIV/AIDS cases have been
reported in the country, including 346 full-blown AIDS cases. However, estimates of HIV/AIDS cases in the country, according to WHO and UNAIDS, go as high as 85,000. The number of actual reported
cases to NACP has remained low due to underreporting and poor data collection and sharing, experts believed. Pakistan is also considered as 'high-risk' for a further spread of HIV infection to the
general population due to multiple factors. These factors include; over 50 million of illiterate population, high prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, high number of migrant workers - mostly
in Gulf countries, high number of both male and female commercial sex workers, limited safety in blood transfusions, increasing number of injecting drug users (IDUs) and a highly mobile refugee
population. In Pakistan, youth make up the major chunk of HIV/AIDS vulnerability, with country's 60 percent population being below 25. "Of which some 32 million within the age group of 10-19 are
highly vulnerable, since according to global trends, young people are becoming sexually active at a very young age," Dr Asma Bukhari, head of NACP, explained. "The newly established association
would promote and advocate for an improved access to treatment, especially anti retroviral (ARVs) therapy and care and support for PLWHA," Haider said.Pakistani health authorities have recently
started providing HIV/AIDS treatment services through eight care centres across the country. However, the scope of coverage in the face of a concentrated HIV epidemic remains limited, analysts say.To boost HIV/AIDS awareness and educate young people to help them recognise their personal vulnerability, NACP has recently started interactive theatre programmes, including live street theatre. "We
are also about to start youth programmes on FM radios," Bukhari said. However, since the HIV epidemic has entered a concentrated phase, a lot more efforts are needed to counter further spread of
infection and provide support to already infected people, Haider of UNAIDS added.
