PESHAWAR, Aug 12: Health experts have called for coordinated efforts to prevent youths from contracting the deadly HIV/Aids diseases. A comprehensive strategy should be evolved to achieve the objective, they said.

They made the observations at a high-level meeting held here on Friday with provincial health secretary Abdus Samad Khan in the chair.

Manager of provincial Aids Control Programme Dr Muhammad Zafar, UNICEF’s Ms Bettina Schunter, members of the National Aids Control Programme (NACP), WHO Programme Officer for HIV/Aids, representatives of education, social welfare and P&D departments participated in the meeting.

The meeting deliberated on low enrolment of children in schools and also their high rate of dropout. Urging the need of chalking out a comprehensive policy for boosting literacy rate, the experts termed parental role and institutional accountability indispensable in this regard.

Similarly, steps for increasing children enrolment in schools and formulation of a strategy to sensitise youth about Aids in conformity with the cultural values were also discussed.

Briefing the joint mission about the strategy adopted by the government to prevent Aids, health secretary Abdus Samad Khan said that efforts for creating awareness among general population and vulnerable groups were under way in collaboration with donor agencies in the province.

He said that provision of free textbooks to school students would help a lot in increasing literacy rate as well as minimising dropout ratio in the province. The health secretary said it was the right time to pursue the issue of Aids to control it effectively.

Dr Muhammad Zafar, Manager Aids Control Programme, NWFP, said that all risk factors of Aids existed in the province though the reported cases were only 459, he added.

He suggested coordinated efforts involving public and private sectors and donors to address youth issues properly. He also recommended holding inter-school literary and sports competitions for creating awareness among youth to combat Aids and other diseases effectively.