KARACHI, June 12: Speakers at an HIV/AIDS awareness seminar here on Saturday called for systematic counselling and education of masses about various modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS infection and urged the government to make the laws relating to blood transfusion and donation more effective.
Health facilities be also improved and made functional to meet the requirements of the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases, they said at the seminar, organized by Pakistan Press Syndicate.
They observed that extra-marital relations and unsafe blood transfusion were the major factors behind the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.
Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who was the chief guest of the inaugural session, said the worst victim of HIV/AIDS were people of the regions where poverty and illiteracy prevailed.
After North Africa, now people in Asia and South Asia are likely to be affected by the fatal disease, he said, adding there was need for a full-fledged drive to check the menace by involving government functionaries, NGOs, intellectuals, writers and other members of civil society.
He said he would support the proposals placed before the government for actions or making new laws to check the spread of the disease.
Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, former chief Justice of Pakistan and chairman of the seminar organizing committee, said two main sources of the spread of HIV/AIDS, i.e. extra-marital relations and homosexuality, could be easily countered by following the social code of life prescribed by Islam.
Highlighting the constitutional safeguards available to a person suffering from HIV/AIDS in Pakistan and the worldwide approach to the endemic problem, Justice Siddiqui said the access to reasonable health service to sustain and enjoy life was a basic right of every citizen, which is guaranteed by the constitution.
He said that rights and privileges were best achieved when persons with HIV realized what right they had as to confidentiality of their medical information and when they had a duty to disclose or not to disclose.
He remarked that lack of knowledge on the part of people about HIV/AIDS had resulted in their isolation.
In its recommendations, the seminar noted that sexual promiscuity was a problem which could be overcome by proper education and dissemination of information through print and electronic media, while on the other hand government-sponsored activities on the subject be also increased and health facilities, particularly in rural areas be made more vibrant.
The seminar also took exception to the prevalent system of blood donation, screening and transfusion and recommended that available laws pertaining to blood banks and transfusion be reviewed afresh and instruments updated. This should be implemented in letter and spirit.
Dr Syed Sharaf Ali Shah of the Sindh AIDS Control Programme said that the first case of AIDS in Pakistan, an African national, was detected in Karachi in 1986, while the total number of reported HIV/AIDS cases by December 2003 was 2197, including 666 in Sindh, which was the highest as compared to figure of other areas of the country.
A maximum of 246 AIDS cases were reported in the people in the age group of 20 to 39 years. Twenty-four women, out of 32 cases, contracted the disease.
Talking about the modes of transmission of the disease, he said 154 cases were caused due to heterosexuality or homosexuality, while 17 pertained to transfusion of infected blood and blood products and seven children got the disease from their mothers.
Referring to the reasons behind the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Pakistan, Dr Sharaf said up to June 2003, Pakistanis deported from Gulf countries were the single largest group in the country identified with HIV infection.
Pre-dominant mode of transmission of HIV infection in the country was through sex, he said, adding current HIV outbreak among injecting drug users was a clear indication that there was a shift in the pattern of HIV.
Dr Sadequa N Jafrey said women were more vulnerable to HIV infection than men, mostly due to biological factors. Ignorance and lack of awareness, non-provision of women-friendly services, and lack of autonomy to women in the family system were the major causes of the spread of the disease.
Dr S. A. Mujeeb, in charge of the JPMC blood bank, regretted that blood transfusion was still unsafe, particularly when prevalence of HBV and HCV in the country was on the higher side.
Ghulam Nabi Qazi of WHO said that the HIV/AIDS was affecting people in their productive years.
Sindh information secretary Mehtab Akbar Rashdi recommended steps to check the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Dr Farhana Memon of Blood Transfusion Authority, Sindh, said that mushroom growth of blood centres and other irrational practices, including accepting blood from donors without any screening, had made the blood transfusion a very risky affair, which needed to be checked.
Among others, the director of Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, M Ashraf Sadique, Dr Srichand Ochani, Zahid Saeed Syed, chairman of the PPS, and Rafia Haider also spoke.