LAHORE, Nov 30: The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) could be successfully prevented by strict adherence to the Islamic teachings.

This was stated by Punjab Tourism Minister Mian Muhammad Aslam Iqbal while speaking as the chief guest at a World Aids Day Seminar at the Alhamra Art Centre here on Sunday.

The minister said that Islamic injunctions of loyalty to one’s life partner and avoiding extra-marital relations provided the Muslims the best possible defence against Aids.

He said although Aids was a disease without a cure, it could be prevented by taking the prescribed precautionary measures like all other diseases. A disciplined life provided the best possible defence against the Aids.

Punjab Special Education Minister Qudsia Lodhi said the Aids was the product of sexual perversion rampant in the western societies. The Muslims sticking to the teachings of Islam were safe from Aids because sexual perversion was strictly forbidden in our religion, she said.

The drug addicts and truck drivers, she said, could fall prey to Aids very easily. The drug addicts could use syringes used by any Aids victim and truck drivers could have relations with infected women during the journey in different parts of the country.

She said the young people were also prone to contract the Aids, but most of them were unaware of it because even the students were not educated about it in view of our cultural and traditional setup.

Dr Ali Razzaq from the Punjab Aids Control Programme said the Aids was a social stigma and its victims often avoided coming forward for treatment.

He said that even the doctor’s behaviour towards the Aids patients was non-professional and objectionable. Some of them even avoided treating them for fear of contracting the disease.

The government, he said, had decided to make the screening of the blood used for transfusion mandatory to prevent the spreading of diseases like Aids. A central blood transfusion control authority was also being established to ensure that the blood used for transfusion was properly screened.

At present, blood screening facilities existed at the National Health Institute, Islamabad; the National Blood Transfusion Institute and College of Community Medicine, Lahore; and the Nishtar Medical College, Multan.

He said that free Aids test facilities were also available at specified government hospitals in Lahore, Gujranwala, Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Faisalabad, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur.

Arrangements were being made for creating Aids awareness among 11,000 sex workers in Lahore and truck drivers with the assistance of the NGOs. He said that Aids was incurable but the lives of patients suffering from it could be prolonged with medicines which were very costly at present.

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi would launch a programme for free treatment of Aids patients on Dec 19. A centre for providing free medicines to the Aids patients would start functioning at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore in two or three months.

Begum Nasira Javed Iqbal, a retired Lahore High Court judge, said the government could prevent the tourists from spreading Aids by following the Maldives government practice of keeping them away from the local population.

She pointed out that there were only 100 Aids victims in the Maldives due to the preventive measures despite the fact that the islands were visited by a great number of tourists every year.

The possibility of contracting Aids through blood transfusion could be eliminated by ensuring that only the relatives donated blood for the patients, she said.

Fatima Jinnah Medical College Principal Dr Muhammad Akbar Chaudhry said the number of people expiring after contracting Aids so far would reach 3.1 million by the end of this year.