KARACHI, Dec 2: The stigma that surrounds HIV/Aids is the barrier in providing necessary information to public and making prevention possible.

This is especially true in the case of conservative society like Pakistan, regarded as a “low prevalence, high-risk” country, which means that although the number of reported cases may still be low, some experts fear the stage is set for an epidemic unless steps are taken to prevent its transmission.

It is therefore admirable that a group of committed young people with the support of the Mary Stopes Society volunteered to stage a play on the contentious subject at the Arts Council on the World Aids Day.

The audience was told that the aim of staging the play Testing Positive by Canadian theatre artist Christopher Isaac was to commemorate the lives lost to the disease and to show solidarity with the patients who were living with it. It is good that creating public awareness about HIV/Aids was not among the stated goals of the evening.

With an audience comprising exclusively of the upper crust of this metropolitan city, including fashion photographer, fashion designer, actor, musician and radio jockey, the by-invitation-only event was in no danger of being attended by anyone who was not already well aware of the causes and devastating effects of Aids.

The play did a commendable job of highlighting the causes of the disease and made a considerable effort in pointing out that Aids was not a ‘gay disease’. Sure enough, statistics have revealed that drug users who share syringes and patients who receive unscreened blood transfusions are equally liable to fall victim to it. Also, due to gender disparities and biological reasons women are at risk more than men.

Ironically, the script itself made it impossible to disassociate the disease from homosexuality. Christopher, the only character in the play suffering from Aids was, in fact, a gay. He discussed the 40 pills he must take every day and the ostracism he suffered. Christopher recalled his partners who died of Aids and how he had to deal with the awkwardness of revealing his illness and sexuality at the same time to his family.

The closing scene, in which the romantic balcony from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is enacted by the two male actors, seemed to take the entire evening even further off message. The evening became less about the need to support HIV/Aids patients and more an endorsement of, in the words of Oscar Wilde, “the love that dare not speak its name”.