PESHAWAR, Nov 30: Speakers at a seminar have stressed the need to make women aware of the risks of the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and said they constitute a highly vulnerable group.
The seminar was organized by the United Rural Development Organization (URDO) in connection with the World Aids Day. The World Health Organization observed the day with the theme 'Women and girls, HIV/Aids'.
NWFP Assembly member Dr Simin Mehmood Jan said women and girls faced greater risk, mainly because of ignorance, and they easily fell victim in cases where their husbands were HIV-positive or Aids patients. Many women had contracted the disease from their husbands, she said.
The number of HIV-positive and Aida patients was higher in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas than in the province because many men worked abroad as labour and brought the disease home with them, said URDO Programme Coordinator Zheer Khattak.
There was no credible data of HIV-positive and Aida patients with any non-government organization, he said. Social norms stopped the patients from telling others about the disease and lack of awareness added to the problem, he said.
The chief of the Aids Control Consortium in the NWFP, Dr Ziaul Hassan, said the disease was a public health issue and people should be informed about that. He said the patients should be informed that the disease was not completely incurable and they should be supported.
He said his organization would organize a week-long awareness campaign for school and college students in 12 districts of the province in this regard. Dr Amir Hassan Jadoon of the NWFP Aids Programme said the World Bank had provided Rs46 million for a three-year programme in the province. About Rs300,000 had been pent on buying screening kits and awareness programmes, he said.
The speakers criticized officials of the Aids Control Programme for not taking effective steps for awareness and prevention of the disease and said funds had not peen effectively utilized for the purpose during the last two-and-a-half years.
Free treatment was not availably for many fatal diseases at government hospitals and HIV-positive patients had to go to private hospitals for tests and treatment, they said and added that the medicines were also expensive.
