PESHAWAR, March 8: Fata Health Director Dr Zubair Khan has said that only 110 people could have been identified as HIV/Aids patients in Fata which has a population of 3.5 million.

“Due to the fear of discrimination and the disgrace attached to the disease, people carrying the fatal virus don’t disclose their suffering,” said Dr Khan while addressing a training programme held here on Thursday for the capacity-building of health professionals in Fata. In the absence of proper treatment facilities, there was need to adopt preventive measures against the disease, he said and called for educating people on the various aspects of the incurable disease.

He called upon the health workers to raise awareness about how the disease is transmitted from one person to the other. “It’s difficult, but not impossible,” he said.

The Fata health director also underlined the role of women in community awareness, particularly in the prevention of the disease in Fata and Frontier Regions.

He said because of lack of awareness, women – mostly those married to immigrant workers – were highly vulnerable to the deadly disease.

Health communities had been established across Fata to help the vulnerable segment, he said. Diagnostic laboratories had also been set up in the agency headquarters hospital, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Iftikhar Ali, Deputy Manager of the HIV/Aids Control Programme for Fata, said a series of workshops would be held for doctors, lady health workers and other supporting staff who would be provided tips on how to educate people to prevent the disease.

Most of those carrying the HIV/Aids virus in Fata were the deportees from the UAE and other Gulf countries, he said. Since in the past, there was no screening facility at airports in the country, many of such deportees came back to the country unnoticed, he added.

“And then, they transmitted the virus to their wives and children, which multiplied the number of patients,” he said.