United Press International - Friday, December 1, 2000
Aamir Shah

Researchers said 80,000 patients in a population of 140 million was not out of hand, but urged the government to encourage patients to come forward for treatment before the situation escalates out of control.

"Social taboos compel many patients to hide their disease, making it difficult for the policymakers to get complete information," says Dr. Birjees Kazi, who heads a policymaking office for AIDS patients at the health ministry.

The article, published prominently in most Pakistani newspapers on World AIDS Day, aims to raise awareness about the disease and suggests means to cope with it.

Kazi, a doctor who has been helping aids patients for more than a decade, said cultural and social taboos about discussing sexual behavior and a lack of awareness among the patients and their relatives "makes the situation potentially dangerous."

Physicians say that there is a sense of shame attached to sexually transmitted diseases. This prevents the patient from sharing his or her problem with the family and it also stops their family members from taking them to physicians.

"We need to find culturally acceptable methods to encourage aids patients to come forward and discuss their problems with their families. We also urge their family members not to let this feeling of shame stop them from bring the patient to a doctor," Kazi said.

An adviser for the UNAIDS program in Pakistan, Kristan K Schultz, says many teenagers get infected but never report the disease out of shame. The official rates of infection in Pakistan are low by global standards while neighboring India now has the world's second largest total of HIV/AIDS sufferers, she said.

She said even the unofficial statistics were not bad as "the level of disease is still very low in Pakistan, but denial and reluctance in reporting the disease complicates the situation," she said.

The Pakistan government and UNAIDS this year completed a survey of 2.7 million people to determine the level of disease in the country. Kazi said some 67.7 percent of the AIDS cases acquired the disease through sexual contact. The survey showed that of reported HIV/AIDS cases some 83 percent were in the sexually active age group of 20 to 49.

"The trend indicates that most unreported patients would also have acquired the disease through sexual contact," Kazi said.

The other major cause of AIDS infection is drug abuse. According to unofficial estimates there are more than two million heroin addicts in Pakistan and there is very little awareness about the methods that spread a disease like AIDS. Many addicts share needles and get infected.

The United Nations and the Pakistan government plan a pilot project next year in the southern port city Karachi to assess the number of those affected with HIV through drug abuse.
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