The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has claimed some 6,800 lives in Pakistan since 1986 while the number of people infected with HIV positive reached to 190,000 with an increase of 25,000 patients annually.
AIDS in Pakistan
According to the data of the UNAIDS, National AIDS Control Programme and other relevant forums shared at a workshop, no province in Pakistan was immune from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) as it had spread to every nook and cranny of the country.
Speakers, in the two-day interactive session concluded here Friday, said HIV and AIDS were two different immunity disorders but often reported in the media as the same.
Dr Saqib Ali Shaikh, the Additional Director, Sindh AIDS Control Program said the objective of organizing such workshop was to sensitize media persons, specially health reporters to reduce stigma and discrimination while reporting HIV and AIDS related news stories and articles.
He emphasized the need of using the right words while reporting HIV and AIDS stories so that people living with HIV and AIDS could be saved from any harm and hate.
The media should follow ethical principles by respecting the privacy of people living with HIV, who were experiencing trauma as a result of an outbreak, Dr. Shaikh said while participating in the workshop via video link from Karachi.
He stressed that factual and correct data and information must be used in news stories to avoid creating sensationalism.
UNAIDS Country officer for Pakistan and Afghanistan Dr. Maria Alena Borromeo said the objective of organizing the workshop was to sensitize media persons for using right words while writing news stories and articles with regard to HIV and AIDS incidences.
She said after the recent outbreak of HIV cases in Larkana in 2019, the activity had been planned to disseminate basic knowledge among media persons to report such cases with utmost care which could not hurt those who were living with this virus.
Dr Maria said the identity of the people infected with HIV and AIDS must be kept secret so that they could be prevented from being sensationalized.
Speaking in the workshop here the other day, the Strategic Information Advisor of the United Nations AIDS programme, Dr. Rajwal Khan had said 53,000 women were among the total 190,000 HIV positive cases while more than 25,000 people were being affected with the virus annually in Pakistan.
The first case was reported in Pakistan in 1986 when no one had any knowledge about Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Dr. Rajwal said and expressed concern that today the virus was present in every corner of the country.
Karachi, Larkana, Hyderabad in Sindh, and Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Sargodha in Punjab were the hot spot areas where the majority of the HIV and AIDS positive cases were being reported in the country, Dr. Rajwal said, adding that 14,300 people living with HIV were registered in Sindh, of them less than 50% i.e 7,000 were under treatment at Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres.
He expressed concern that there was an upward trend of emergence of positive HIV cases despite the utilization of funds of billions of rupees.
He suggested that in order to curb the surge of virus cases, at least 90 percent of people living with HIV must be provided medication on a regular basis.
Waqar Bhatti, the workshop facilitator, said there were 49 anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres in Pakistan for providing treatment facilities to the people living with HIV and AIDS, out of them 27 were working in Punjab, 15 in Sindh, four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Balochistan.
In Sindh, seven ART centres were established in different hospitals of Karachi, three in Larkana district including one at Ratodero, and one each in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas and Sehwan, Bhatti said.
The JPMC, Civil Hospital (Adult), Civil Hospital (Pediatric), Lyari General Hospital, Agha Khan Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Indus Hospital in Karachi and Chandka Medical College Hospital, Shaikh Zayed Hospital in Larakana, Taluka Hospital Ratodero, GMC Hospital Sukkur, PMC Hospital Nawabshah, Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas and Abdullah Shah Institute Hospital Sehwan had the anti-retroviral therapy centres where people living with HIV and AIDS were being provided treatment facilities, according to the data shared by the workshop organizers.
Community Support Advisor of UNAIDS Fahmida Khan emphasized the need of the role of media practitioners in thwarting the negative impression about people living with HIV and AIDS by using right words and the terminologies in their news stories.
She suggested some appropriated words that should be used in news stories instead of sensational words often used in the media so that stigma and the discrimination could be avoided.
District Health Officer Hyderabad Dr Juman Bahoto said such programmes always provided an opportunity for the media persons to learn about how to write news stories of sensitive health issues such as HIV, AIDS and other pandemics like COVID-19.
He expressed the hope that media persons of Hyderabad would gain fruitful knowledge and would enrich their professional capabilities.
Dr Juman, Dr Borromeo and HPC President Abdullah Shaikh distributed certificates among the participants.
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