ISLAMABAD: The government sought on Friday enhanced financial allocations to fight HIV and AIDS at a time when UNAIDS suggests more efforts as the epidemic still has low prevalence in the country.

Addressing a news conference at the UN Information Centre, UNAIDS Country Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan Dr Mamadou Sakho said: “If we do not fast-track our response, we would pay more tomorrow.” He spoke about the new World AIDS Day report which estimates that 15.8 million people globally are on the HIV treatment.

The future of the HIV epidemic in the country Pakistan would depend on the scope and effectiveness of HIV prevention programmes for people injecting drugs, their partners, sex workers and their clients, a new report released by UNAIDS ahead of World AIDS Day being observed on Dec 1, said.

The country’s HIV epidemic is characterised primarily by injecting drug but now it is increasingly being characterised by sexual transmission.

Although some prevention programmes have been implemented, the use of sterile injecting equipment and condom continue to be low among people who inject drugs, says the report.

Programme Manager of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) Dr Abdul Baseer Khan Achakzai voiced concern over low budget towards the fight against HIV/AIDS. He called upon the government to allocate more funds for the purpose of screening, testing and medication of infected people.

He said Pakistan lacked expertise on HIV/AIDS and at the same time there were neither institutions to enhance knowledge about the epidemic nor any academic teaching to spread the knowledge about HIV/AIDS.

Dr Baseer said that more emphasis was being laid on poliovirus which actually paralysed a small number of children whereas HIV/AIDS killed the population, therefore the epidemic should also get the government’s priority.

NACP with the help of Unicef is offering 11 prevention courses to parents at child transmission centres in all the four provinces. The largest centre is located at PIMS, Islamabad where 2,200 patients hailing from different localities were registered. With the Unicef assistance, the centre has shown successful results and so far no child has been born at the centre infected with HIV.

Dr Nasir Sarfaraz of Unicef said the biggest challenge were infected pregnant women who did not come to the centre for treatment. Such women are in great numbers and yet not screened.

He said provincial AIDS control programme in Punjab had recently screened wives of 1,900 drug users and found 101 of them positive. Their several children had also been found positive, he said.

He said that Unicef was working with NACP to establish early diagnosis services in various parts of the country.

The UNAIDS report says that HIV prevalence remains low among female sex workers, but prevention services are still needed. Number of sex workers is high in the largest cities: Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Hyderabad.

According to the report, HIV prevalence among male sex workers throughout Pakistan is low but prevention services were still needed. The highest members of male sex workers are estimated in Karachi, followed by Larkana.

People who inject drugs are found throughout Pakistan, with larger communities in the central and eastern part of the country, near Gujrat and Faisalabad. More than half of the people who inject drugs around Faisalabad are living with HIV. Harm-reduction programmes for people who inject drugs need to be readily accessible in all provinces of Pakistan.

On the other hand, HIV prevalence among transgender people is vast, and the HIV prevalence suggests that Larkana and Karachi need programmes to prevent infections among transgender people.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015