Dr Asma Bokhari of National AIDS Control Programme in the National Institute of Health (NIH) said that HIV-AIDS is rising in Pakistan and an estimated 24,000 young people are infected out of 70,000 to 80,000 HIV-AIDS cases in Pakistan.
She said out of total infections, about 22 percent are aged between 15 to 24 years of age.
Dr Asma stated this while addressing the first meeting of the Federal Working Group for the Life Scale-Based Education (LSBE) and Empowerment Adolescents (EA) here on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Unicef, NGOs, Health Ministry, and National Institute of Health.
The representatives recommended that country needs the working group for the advocacy for adolescent-friendly health services specially in HIV-AIDS.
Dr Asma said that in the world 42 million people are suffering from HIV-AIDS and five million people get infected annually out of which 4.2 million are adults.
She said that key risk factors in Pakistani scenario are slow literacy rate, high poverty levels, low spending in health and education, and large number of internal and external migrations.
She said more than 50 percent of the total population is below 25 years of age and adolescents of age 10 to 18 years accounting for 17.5 percent of the population are in risk areas, adding that 2,462 cases are registered in Pakistan out of which 2,176 cases have positive HIV-AIDS till March 2004.
Dr Asma said few younger persons undertake preventive measures and seek treatment, and added that young people are specially are at high risk because of injecting drugs, sexual exploitation, and trafficking of women.
She recommended that health services should be youth-friendly, and there should be greater involvement of youth at the policy and programme level.
Other Unicef representatives said that Unicef will start a programme, "Life scale based education and Empowering Adolescent" in collaboration with the Health Ministry and NGOs for the advocacy of youth of 13 to 19 years of age.
They said that 60 percent of adolescent in six high risks districts are Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi, and Larkana have acquired the knowledge and skills to protect themselves from the HIV-AIDS and use of drugs and are able to lead healthy lifestyles and work as agents of change.
They said that working groups will be established at the provincial and districts levels to educate the youth about healthy lifestyle, adding that volunteer teachers are required for advocacy of youth at the learning institutions.
They said the national working group will develop a common understanding of standards for LSBE and HIV-AIDs prevention and care among government, NGOs, donor agencies, and other partners working for HIV-AIDS prevention.
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