LIVING with HIV or full-blown Aids can be unimaginably traumatic for patients even in the most liberal of societies. The disease, after all, remains incurable to this day and comes with numerous stigmas and taboos. In the West, including America, it was portrayed in the early 1980s as an affliction limited to homosexual men and their lifestyles. In subsequent years, it was discovered that nothing could be further from the truth as both men and women became infected through shared needle use and unsafe sexual activities. Over the years, the disease assumed worldwide prevalence and the hardest hit were developing countries, particularly African nations such as Botswana where HIV infection is said to have reached epidemic proportions. The disease is also ruining and claiming lives across the industrialised world.

In Pakistan, described by the National Aids Control Programme as a “low prevalence, high-risk country”, the situation is not so dire — at least not yet. But there can be no ignoring the fact that HIV-Aids is a fact of life in this country and must be addressed at the earliest. Injecting drug users who share needles can be seen in plain view in almost every large and small city. Interaction with commercial sex workers was, and continues to be, part of the problem. As reported in this paper, HIV-Aids patients suffer huge discrimination not only in the workforce but also at the hands of family members. Their suffering, understandably, is immense. But the repercussions go beyond the patient. According to a recent UN report, HIV-Aids can cause “irrepressible poverty” that can pass down the generations. In short, we are talking about cyclical poverty that can, in many cases, not be undone. Raising levels of awareness about how the disease is contracted and increased informed sympathy for patients are in order.