ISLAMABAD: Citizens and medical organisations on Saturday called for an end to the concealment of data on HIV and other blood-borne diseases and urged the government to provide funding for disease control programmes.
Lok Sehat, a citizens’ group working for better healthcare in Pakistan, demanded that the federal and provincial governments make disease data publicly available for better future planning to counter HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and assume financial responsibility instead of relying heavily on international donors.
The demand came after Lok Sehat convened a national dialogue on HIV and AIDS, attended by doctors, public health experts, medical associations, civil society groups, UN representatives and various organisations.
“Government should shun the policy of disease control through data control. Governments should also take the financial responsibility instead of relying on the Global Fund for HIV, TB and malaria control and treatment,” Lok Sehat Convener Dr Zafar Mirza said.
He said the dialogue had been convened to develop a community-centred, technically sound and nationally owned response to HIV, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, surveillance, infection prevention and control, regulation and accountability.
Dr Mirza said available HIV figures were only the “tip of the iceberg” and called for a complete epidemiological investigation into outbreaks among children and rising infections among vulnerable populations.
Former NACP and IHRA chief Dr Quaid Saeed said 13 HIV outbreaks had been reported in Pakistan during the last 18 years, but only two, including the Jalalpur Jattan and Ratodero outbreaks, had been extensively investigated.
He called for proper epidemiological investigations into every outbreak.
Infectious disease expert Dr Naseem Akhtar said most HIV cases being seen in Islamabad were among people who inject drugs, deportees, transgender persons and female sex workers, while some paediatric cases had also emerged in recent years.
Another infectious disease specialist, Dr Asma Naseem, said Karachi had a similar pattern, but an unprecedented rise in HIV among children over the past year was deeply worrying.
She said children with HIV were also being brought to SIUT with renal failure, underscoring the need for urgent measures to halt further transmission.
Representatives of the Pakistan Medical Association, Pakistan Paediatric Association, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association and UNAIDS participated in the dialogue.
Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2026
