KARACHI, Nov 27: Experts at a media workshop on Thursday said that there was a great need to focus on the children and spouses of injecting drug users (IDUs) and to provide them necessary support to eliminate the chances of transmission of HIV/Aids to future generations.

Although the HIV cases in IDUs dropped to 23.1 per cent in 2008 in Karachi, it didn’t mean that a complacent attitude should be adopted in this regard, they warned.

They said that due to overall apathy, poverty, illiteracy and ignorance and influx of people from upcountry and outside the country, resurgence of HIV among injecting drug users could not be ruled out.

Moreover, the particular tendency of IDUs to frequently share needles/syringes did not only make them most vulnerable to HIV, there was this possibility that the infection spread among their pregnant wives and children, thus enabling the virus to make inroads into the general population, they said.

The workshop was organised by the Sindh Aids Control Programme (SACP) to disseminate the data of the 3rd round of surveillance (2008) carried out in Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana.

The provincial manager of the aids control programme, Dr M Nasir Jalbani, told journalists that efforts were being made not only to extend care and support to the IDUs, but also to their families.

The IDUs related situation had been checked in Karachi through increased interventions and service delivery packages in the last couple of years, and now a number of projects had also been proposed for creating awareness, counselling and screening of wives and children of IDUs and the male and female sex workers they visited, he added.

He said that there were an estimated 100,000 people infected with HIV in the country. And majority of the infections occurred in urban areas. In Sindh there were between 35,000 and 40,000 cases, and 80 per cent of whom were believed to be living in Karachi, he said. The federal and the Sindh governments with the assistance of the World Bank and other development and donor agencies would start a new phase of the Aids control programme early next year and would provide services to 80 per cent of most at risk population in the province, he said.

According SACP data, as many as 2,354 cases have been reported, including 2,186 of HIV and 167 of Aids. About 136 patients are on antiretroviral drugs.

The latest study that ended in April 2008 was conducted with the coverage of about 2,400 samples from high-risk groups (male injecting drug users, male and eunuch sex workers) in Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana.

During his presentation on the surveillance report, Dr Arshad Altaf, senior support officer of the project, said that the duration as an IDU was reported to be 5.2 years in Karachi, 6.7 years in Hyderabad and, 4.5 years in Larkana, while the average number of narcotic injection intake was two per day. Majority (90.1 per cent) reported streets as the main site of injecting drugs.

City wise, 21.8 per cent IDUs in Karachi informed that they had used an old or used syringe for last injection while in Hyderabad 26.4 per cent reported use of used syringes and 44.4 per cent in Larkana.

About 33.4 per cent of IDUs maintained that they had sex with their spouse or another female.

Some 23.7 per cent of IDUs said they used condoms the last time they had sex.

Sex with male sex workers or with eunuchs in the past six months was reported by 11.4 per cent, while 13.9 per cent reported they have had sex in exchange for drugs or money.

In Karachi 36.8 per cent, Larkana 37.4 per cent and, Hyderabad 25 per cent of IDUs considered themselves at risk of HIV infection.

According to Dr Altaf, the overall prevalence of HIV infection was 27.3 per cent (323 out of 1,189 surveyed) in Sindh. Among the HIV-positive IDUs, 48.5 per cent were married, which should be a matter of serious concerns, he remarked.

He said that “HIV epidemic” in Sindh continued to be driven by IDUs, while eunuch sex workers were the rapidly emerging as the second most high-risk group. There was an immediate need to establish harm reduction programmes in Hyderbad and Larkana, he concluded.

HIV among IDUs in Karachi, determined through different surveillance surveys, was 23 per cent in 2004 (Jan-Mar), 26 per cent in 2004 (Sep-Dec), 31 per cent in 2006-07 and 23 per cent in 2008.

The overall proportion of IDUs always using a new syringe in 2008 survey came as 30.9 per cent; in case of Karachi it was 44.8 per cent, 26.2 per cent in Hyderabad and 21.0 in Larkana.

Dr Salman Safdar, an UNAIDS-Pakistan programme officer in Sindh, said that over 6,800 new HIV infections took place a day in 2007 throughout the world and out of which 96 per cent belonged to low- and middle-income countries. About 1,200 children under 15 years of age were infected every day, he added.

He appreciated the role of the media in a fight against HIV/Aids in Pakistan and observed that with more adherence to the principles of respect for patient living with HIV and creation of environment, awareness and advocacy, the media could help further reduce the stigma and discrimination against HIV patients.