17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: The government is considering involving the police and schoolteachers in its campaign to combat HIV/Aids in the wake of recent abnormal increase in the disease among vulnerable groups in the country, a source in the health ministry told Dawn.

The policy makers believe that the police who routinely handle scores of suspects and criminals could be of immense help, especially in the backdrops of reports about unnatural and illegitimate relationship between detainees or inmates in the lockups of different police stations and jails.

Policemen having knowledge about the dangers of the disease could contribute a lot to preventing the spread of the disease, they believe.

The source said soon after Ramazan, senior officials of the Islamabad police would be briefed on the hazards of HIV/Aids through presentations and interactive workshops. The scope of the campaign will be expanded through similar seminars by inviting members from the education department and the ministry of labour and manpower.

Afterwards, lady police force, inspectors and mid-level police personnel would be sensitized to the disease.

Similarly, schoolteachers would be sensitized so that they could transfer the knowledge to their students from class 9 and above.

A separate seminar would be arranged with the health specialists to apprise them of the protocols of administrating anti-retroviral drugs among the HIV patients. Drugs would be provided free of cost to the patients under government policy.

The National Aids Control Programme recently conducted orientation workshops for religious leaders and mediapersons to apprise them of the horrors of the disease.

The government has also launched a five-year Enhance HIV/Aids Control Programme to prevent the disease by avoiding stigmatization.

HIV/Aids leads to the destruction of the immune system of the human body so much that the body becomes unable to resist infections which the healthy body could cope with in normal circumstances. According to official estimates, there are 2,299 cases of HIV/Aids in the country; however, unofficial reports suggest over 80,000 HIV/Aids patients are not reported or registered with any hospital.

In Pakistan, sexual transmission is the major mode of HIV/Aids spread - 55.58 per cent - followed by blood and blood products 16 per cent, injecting drug users 3.3 per cent, mother-to-child transmission 2.42 per cent and others 34 per cent. High proportion of adolescent and youth, large internal migration, poverty, gender inequalities, low literacy rate and high prevalence of risky behaviours are the biggest challenges in preventing HIV/Aids.

The highest prevalence rate of HIV/Aids among the drug addicts has been identified in the province of Sindh whereas a similar trend has been witnessed in Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP.