The international donor agencies have asked Pakistan to expedite its efforts to avert a looming danger of HIV/AIDS spread. Sources told Business Recorder that the government has received a fresh call from donor agencies to step up the on-going campaign against the crippling disease.
Pakistan which has been declared as low prevalence, but high risk country is not in a position to take pre-emptive measures to deal with the possible threat.
Pakistan is situated between HIV/AIDS high risk countries, including India on the east, China in the north, and Afghanistan in the west. The authorities believe Iran was the only low risk neighbour at the moment.
More than 2,300 AIDS patients have so far been reported in Pakistan whereas the total number of Pakistanis infected with the virus could be as high as 70,000 to 80,000.
In order to tackle the growing health and social problem, the government has launched a National AIDS Control Program in collaboration with the World Bank, but it has so far failed to deliver according to the expectations.
Health experts have repeatedly warned that the disease was no longer a health problem, but a security issue that has put at risk lives of millions of the people.
Pakistan was earlier considered to be relatively protected from the spread of AIDS but it is feared that the situation could become worse in the absence of a long-term strategy.
The mode of HIV/AIDS transmission in the country is largely heterosexual (more than 50 percent) and contaminated blood (11 percent). Other modes of transmission include injecting drug-users, male to male or bisexual relations and mother to child.
The United Nations, in the past, has also stressed that Pakistan should take concerted and co-ordinated steps for maintaining the seemingly limited presence of the virus. Pakistan is a vulnerable country with increasing levels of poverty, low levels of literacy, unawareness among health workers and a large mobile population, including refugees in border areas.
Limited safety of blood transfusion and reuse of syringes without sterilisation are instrumental in HIV/AIDS spread.