QUETTA, May 25: The government and the civil society, particularly the media, should work jointly to create public awareness in order to control the possible HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country.

Participants of a one-day workshop, organised by the AIDS Control Programme of Balochistan, concurred that while the media was playing an effective role, more efforts were needed to make people understand the deadly disease.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is increasing, especially in some parts of Balochistan.

The meeting was informed that 26 cases had been reported in Zhob while several cases had been detected in Turbat and other areas in Makran.

Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly Jamal Shah Kakar was the chief guest on the occasion, while provincial director-general health Dr Rashid Baloch, NACP’s epidemiologist Dr Aliya Rabbani, programme manager of the Global Fund Dr Huma Qureshi, Dr

M.I. Danish, Dr Badar Munir,

Dr Nasir Khan and Shahid Nadeem Malik addressed the workshop.

Four working groups were formed to formulate various recommendations to make the AIDS control programme more effective.