ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: United Nations has allocated $67 million for HIV/AIDS programmes and establishment of related infrastructure in Pakistan over the next 5 years, Dr Nafis Sadik, UN secretary-general’s special adviser on HIV/AIDS, said here on Saturday.

She said a major part of the fund would be provided to NGOs which had been working with the high risk groups in the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the UN information centre, Dr Sadik said she had discussed the situation with President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, the minister of health and other officials.

She said the president and the prime minister had assured her that they would start talking about the problem publicly besides discussing the matter in the cabinet.

In reply to a question, she said the estimated number of people affected by HIV/AIDS ranged from 72,000 to 80,000. Although the incidence of the disease in Pakistan was much below than in other countries of the region, there is no room for complacency, she pointed out.

“Pakistan and its South Asian neighbours are at the same level today as some of the African countries were 20 years ago. Due to the failure to take cognizance of its magnitude, the disease spreads rapidly,” she added.

She said young girls and women were the most vulnerable in Pakistan where the disease was spread by men engaged in homosexual who then transmitted it to their wives.

She said the returning immigrant workers were one of the sources of communication of HIV due to the lack of quarantine facilities at airports. She said sex workers were a major problem in all the affected areas, particularly in Muslim countries where it was prohibited.

In Senegal, a Muslim country though, prostitution has been legalized, enabling the country to document and regulate sex workers. As a result, the rate of spread of the disease has been reduced from 3 per cent to 2 per cent in three years, she observed.

Dr Sadik also raised the problem of maternal mortality with Pakistani leaders. She said the highest number of victims were young girls who were married prematurely. The number of girls suffering from these complications has risen to 1.2 million in the country, she added.

These diseases are curable in 95 per cent of the cases, she pointed out. She said that in this connection a decision had been taken to set up fistula centres in Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas.

Answering a question, Dr Sadik conceded that the cost of treatment of HIV/AIDS was very expensive. But, she added, the focus of the UN was on preventing the spread of the epidemic, providing care to the victims and creating public awareness.