HIV/AIDS Pandemic Making A Surge Across Globe,raising Alarms

Feature By Yawar Abbas HIV/AIDS prevalence is increasing not only in Pakistan but across the globe with every passing day and has touched the alarming proportions by becoming the fourth deadliest disease in the world.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Dec, 2018 ) :Feature By Yawar Abbas HIV/AIDS prevalence is increasing not only in Pakistan but across the globe with every passing day and has touched the alarming proportions by becoming the fourth deadliest disease in the world.

In Pakistan the number has crossed two lacs as fiftyfive Pakistanis are infected every day raising concerns both at government and public level.

UNAIDS Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan Dr Maria Elena G. Filio Borromeo said the HIV infections in the past seven years had steadily increased, now at 45%. Philippines, Pakistan and Malaysia are the three countries in Asia Pacific where the number of new infections is increasing.

She said the estimated number of people living with HIV is around 150,000. For 2017 alone, there were 20,000 new HIV infections.

UNAIDS is working closely with partners in government, people living with HIV, and other development partners to share the latest scientific breakthrough and advances that could help Pakistan fast track its HIV response, she said.

Dr Maria said the national HIV prevalence of people who inject drugs is 21 percent, which is higher than the figure of transgender disease prevalence which is 5.5 percent besides other high-risk communities.

Pakistan,s high rate of unsafe injection practices both in formal and informal health sector involving the use of non-sterilized needles and used syringes have become a major cause for concern in prevalence of HIV/AIDS in incognizant population.

Lack of organized blood transfusion services with inadequate screening for blood borne infections is a major issue across the country especially in the private sector. It is estimated that 40 percent of the 1.5 million annual blood transfusions in Pakistan are not screened for HIV.

Health experts claimed that inadequate blood transfusion screening at private and public hospitals, high number of professional donors and unsafe injection practices have multiplied the threats of increasing rate of carrying communicable diseases by country people like hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

"One of the major conditions that put individuals at greater risk of contracting HIV or AIDS include receiving unsafe injections, blood transfusions, tissue transplantation, medical procedures that involve unsterile cutting or piercing," National Coordinator, Safe Blood Transfussion Programme Prof. Hassan Abbas Zaheer said.

Similarly, the country has a very poor voluntary blood donor base and a high proportion of blood available for transfusion is collected from either family replacement donors or professional blood donors, which is also another reason for spreading of HIV/AIDS in the country.

"It is a time we should think and do something for the many people who were and continue to be impacted by contaminated blood." Sharing contaminated needles, syringes and other injecting equipment and drug solutions when injecting drugs are becoming great source for spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS.

Still many small blood banks in the country both at public and private level have been using manual blood screening kits, which are substandard and unsafe. There are chances of use of infected blood if tested at these small blood banks." Prof Zaheer said.

Prof Zaheer suggested administrative action against these small banks to stop spread of any communicable disease through blood transfusion."We are creating awareness in public and taking measures to minimize the level of disease threat from unsafe blood transfusion." "We have introduced a new system to ensure safe blood transfusion to avoid carrying infections of hepatitis and HIV and in this regard 10 regional blood banks have been established besides upgrading 60 existing blood banks in hospitals." Programme Manager, National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) Dr Baseer Khan Achkzai said "We all need to realize our responsibilities and the critical role we all have to play to make Pakistan HIV/AIDS free. We still have a chance today as Pakistan is confronted with a concentrated HIV epidemic that can be addressed by a focused and targeted approach." "We need to unite to avert a full-blown HIV epidemic by taking immediate preventive measures, encourage HIV testing and treatment, and addressing HIV associated stigma and discrimination to reduce the number of new HIV infections." He said establishment of the safe blood transfusion programmes at the national and provincial levels will ensure adequate and nationwide access to safe blood supply and will be definitely helpful in avoiding spread of infection through blood transfusion.

Through awareness we will provide an opportunity to realize that HIV can be prevented by adopting privative measures including safe blood transfusion and avoiding use of drugs through injections. Adopting high impact evidence based approach for the coming years focusing on both prevention and treatment of the disease through working directly with the communities is the need of the hour.

Country Representative World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Nima Saeed Abid advised to have effective awareness on the prevention aspect of the disease to protect the people from carrying the HIV/AIDS particularly through injecting drugs or unsafe blood transfusion.

He said WHO has been focusing on HIV prevention and on case study as the test to know the status of HIV is very cheap and easy. "It is better for everyone to know the status as majority of people in Pakistan don't know they have HIV as only 16 percent know this." Dr Nima said marginalized groups particularly people who inject drugs face widespread stigma and discrimination, and the fear of maltreatment impacts their willingness to pursue testing.