KARACHI, Oct 17: Sindh health minister, Ahsan Ahmed, said on Wednesday that an overall change in national attitude was needed to regain the lost courage to speak out, listen, communicate and to write the truth.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of a one-day consultation of print and electronic media, organized by the Pakistan AIDS Prevention Society in collaboration with the UNDP regional project on HIV and the Sindh Aids Control Programme, at a local hotel.

He said that stifling of the press and electronic media, carried out during the 11-year Zia rule, has left deep imprints and the imposed parameters have become a sort of second nature for many.

Mr Ahmed added that in our country, with 1,500 confirmed HIV cases and an estimated population of 70,000 more such cases, HIV/AIDS is considered a taboo because of its connotation to sex which is one of the modes of infection.

He said that the number of reported and estimated HIV/AIDS cases in the country highlights the need for all segments of society, including the media, to play their role in addressing the problem.

The minister reminded representatives of the media of their duty to remove existing social stigmas and highlight the facts of life in order to spread awareness. He insisted that it was important to understand the difference between spreading information and creating fear.

He reminded that contaminated needles were also a major source of HIV infection and asked the media to highlight the hazards of unnecessary use of injectables.

The health minister also spoke about the plight of those vulnerable to HIV and called for a concerted effort to reduce poverty, gender disparity, illiteracy, unemployment, marginalization and social exclusion.

He opined that in our context, a concerted effort at identification of vulnerable population and reduction of their vulnerability in combination with reduction of high-risk behaviour within these populations can help control the further spread of HIV.

Ahsan Ahmed said that considering the size of the country’s population and existing socio-economic conditions of the masses, an epidemic of HIV/AIDS has the potential to disrupt every sector of Pakistani society.

He announced that a “health education corner” would be set up at the Press Club, with emphasis on the provision of information pertaining to HIV/AIDS. There will be a computer connected with Internet for downloading information about AIDS.

The health minister also spoke about the increase in Hepatitis B and C cases in the country and pointed out that psychiatric morbidity is also rising at a brisk pace in Pakistan primarily due to abject poverty which, according to estimates, has touched an alarming proportion of 30pc of the total population.

The manager of the Sindh Aids Control Programme, Dr Sharaf Ali Shah, presenting overview of the HIV\AIDS situation, said that Pakistan has 1,800 reported HIV cases, while the estimated number of such cases was in the range of 50,000 to 80,000.

He said that many cases in the country tend to remain unreported because of the stigma attached to this disease. He said that undiagnosed and unsuspecting HIV cases had the potential to spread the infection as signs and symptoms of HIV infection emerge after eight to ten years of infection.

In Sindh, according to the AIDS control manager, the number of full-blown AIDS cases reported since 1986 was 80, and that of HIV was 437. More than 90 per cent of these cases comprised males. Last year, a shift was seen in this pattern where out of the 29 reported HIV cases and seven AIDS cases, 20 per cent population comprised females.

He said that 20 centres in the province were providing voluntary HIV testing and counselling facilities and 40 centres were engaged in providing treatment and counselling for sexually- transmitted diseases. In addition, under the AIDS control programme in Sindh, 2,500 family physicians have been trained over the last five years in managing STD and HIV cases.

Dr Sharaf said that 70 NGOs were working with the SACP in providing counselling and services for HIV control and prevention. He stressed that behaviour modification was the key to reduce the spread of HIV infection.

He said that overseas Pakistani workers, their spouses and children, STI patients, female sex workers, truck drivers and prisoners have been identified as vulnerable groups for the spread of AIDS in Pakistan.

“In a majority of the cases, the mode of transmission of the disease appears to be heterosexual, homosexual, blood and blood products and mother-to-child transmission” he added.

Earlier, highlighting the objectives of the consultation, secretary general of the Pakistan AIDS Prevention Society, Shoukat Ali, said that the treatment of HIV\AIDS in our region must keep us on alert and stressed the need for closer liaison and collaboration between different segments of society and government agencies. Senior journalist Agha Masood Hussain also spoke on the occasion.