ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: The government intends to spend Rs2.85 billion to raise awareness against HIV/AIDS, including launching of Life Skill Education programme in schools, specially in rural areas.
This was stated by federal health minister Mohammad Nasir Khan while talking to reporters at the health ministry. He said 80 per cent of the amount would be generated by the government from its own resources. This amount will be spent during 2003- 2007.
Unicef is helping a lot in developing the campaign, he said. The campaign will target youths, who comprise 30 per cent of total population of the country.
The minister was talking about Pakistan’s participation in South Asia High Level Conference, regarding accelerating the momentum in the fight against HIV/AIDS, scheduled to be held at Kathmandu (Nepal) from February 3 to 4.
This is an opportunity to anticipate risks in time and avoid devastating consequences as witnessed in some other parts of the world, since Pakistan is among the low-prevalence, but high-risk countries. It is a big issue and prevention is the only safety.
Mr Ibrahim Jabr, Unicef representative in Pakistan, and Dr Asma Bokhari, manager, National AIDS Control Programme, were also present on the occasion.
About the Life Skill Education, the minister said his ministry was in close contact with the education ministry, and the curriculum wing had developed a syllabus to educate the young people about HIV/AIDS.
“Though, Pakistan is among low-prevalence countries due to our religious and cultural life patterns, we need to launch the campaign on war-footing by involving youths, religious leaders, NGOs, civil society organizations etc.,” he said.
Mr Khan said Islam focused on family and forbad reckless behaviour. “Pakistan needs to be diligent in attacking the disease, which knows no borders, colours, creed, religion, old or young,” he observed, adding that it was very difficult to treat the disease as it had no cure.
“We want to contain and combat the menace of AIDS at all fronts by involving religious people and women parliamentarians from the four provinces,” he said. A group of women parliamentarians would be involved in the campaign, since it was easy for them to interact with housewives.
The government will also try to sensitize people from the red-light areas about this menace, he said.
The minister suggested that it was time that the parents stressed on groom’s AIDS test before marriage, because women were the most silent victims, besides the disease also affected children.
He said, within six months, a big awareness campaign against HIV/AIDS would be launched in the country with active participation of the provincial governments.
The current prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Pakistan is one per cent of the total population and out of 1,972 cases reported, 1,741 people are HIV positive, while 231 have full-blown AIDS. However, the estimated figure is between 70,000 and 80,000 HIV positive.
The minister said Pakistan could not afford treatment of this disease, because it cost Rs20,000 a month to treat a patient.
HIV/AIDS in Pakistan primarily remains a sexually transmitted disease as in about 90 per cent of over 42 million total world-wide reported cases, the virus was contracted through sexual contact. Data analysis indicates that most infections occur between ages of 20 and 44 years, with men outnumbering women by a ration of 7:1. Due to drug abuse, the disease was spreading at a rate of seven per cent per year in Pakistan, the minister said.
The heterosexual transmission accounts for the majority of reported cases (67 per cent). Other modes include infection through contaminated blood and blood products (18 per cent), homo or bisexual sex (six per cent), drug abuse (four per cent), mother to child transmission (1.3 per cent). The transmission is unknown in 35 per cent of reported cases.
Globally, about 16,000 new infections occur every day. Every minute, 11-12 people contract infections, out of which five to six belong to the age group of 14 to 25 years. About five million individuals were infected with HIV in 2002.
The minister said through Safe Blood Transmission Ordinance 2002, all blood transfusion required proper screening.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Health Hamid Yar Hiraj on Friday stressed the need to involve members of district governments in sensitizing the rural population about the menace of HIV/AIDS.
Speaking at the launch of a $100,000 project to reduce vulnerability of Pakistani emigrants to HIV/AIDS at a local hotel, the minister said the district governments were more organized and eager to serve the people of respective areas.
“If you really want to make a difference then rural people should be involved in the awareness campaign against AIDS,” he said.
The minister said people living in rural areas were more scared to be identified and get treatment for different diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Besides majority of the people, who have gone to the Gulf countries for employment, belongs to the rural areas, he added.
“Though there is a need to run the campaign throughout the country, people living in cities like Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar are already educated people, therefore the focus should be on residents of rural areas.”
He also emphasized the need for creating awareness about the dangers involved in irresponsible blood transfusion and use of disposable syringes.
Mr Hiraj said a large number of used syringes were stolen from big cities and used in remote villages posing threat to the rural population.
Earlier, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative, Onder Yucer, said the HIV/AIDS was the most devastating epidemic in recent history.
It has quickly become the biggest obstacle in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, he added.
“Well over 60 million people have been infected since the beginning of the epidemic, where as HIV continues to spread with over 15,000 new infections every day.”
The UNDP official said the HIV/AIDS epidemic was deepening and spreading poverty, reversing human development, worsening gender inequalities, reducing labour productivity and hampering growth.