THIS refers to the news report ‘WHO experts identify weaknesses contributing to HIV/AIDS’ (June 9).

Two things in the report make it look more like the Sindh government treating it as a political issue rather than a serious failing of the government health system.

The first is where Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho objected to media persons questioning WHO officials. This, she said, made them feel obstructed in performing their job and asked them to contact the ‘focal’ person instead.

Of course, the ‘focal person’ would know what to disclose and what to hide. The other was where she suggested that funding to the tune of $1.5 million was required to meet the challenge.

Surprisingly missing from the report was any hint towards ‘certain weaknesses’ in the system detected by the WHO team.

The Chairman of Sindh Health Commission, Dr Tipu Sultan, in a TV interview stated that HIV/AIDS in Sindh, especially among children, was not solely owing to the use of used syringes but was caused by unhygienic circumcision of boys, ear and nose-piercing of girls as well as repeated shaving of children’s head in the same unhygienic manner.

I remember that on the spread of AIDS in Africa, the government of an African country I worked for about 40 years ago widely publicised the causes and took remedial steps. And here is our Sindh government, shunning publicity of major causes and fondly looking forward to $1.5 million funding.

Syed Riaz
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2019