HIV/AIDS in Pakistan - National Response To HIV Epidemic

National Response To HIV Epidemic

Pakistan’s response to HIV/AIDS began in 1987 with the establishment of a Federal Committee on AIDS by the Ministry of Health. The national AIDS control Program was then established. Its objectives are the prevention of HIV transmission among specific population sub-groups, safe blood transfusions, reduced STI transmission, establishment of surveillance, training of health staff, research and behavioral studies, and development of program management.

The prevention efforts received a major boost since 2004 when a World Bank loan/grant allowed the Ministry of Health (and the provincial Departments of Health) to start a program which seeks to provide HIV prevention services to IDUs, sex workers and truckers; perform advocacy and communication for the general public and covers significant proportin of the national blood supply for HIV, HBV and HCV screening. This "Enhanced HIV/AIDS Control Program" has been able to establish these services using NGOs to perform the interventions in most large cities although the quality of the services as well as the completeness of their "coverage" remains low. Overall the IDU programs in Punjab are performing the best with over 70% coverage of target populations with services in 4 cities. Programs for sex workers lag somewhat but are bolstered by the fact that the metropolises have higher levels of knowledge and safer behaviors. However, the overall levels of coverage of services remain low at around 16% for IDUs and <10% for sex workers nationwide. The communication project has performed probably the least with only 44% of Pakistani women reporting ever hearing of the word "AIDS" in 2007. Finally HIV treatment was started in 2005. Currently over 900 individuals receive free HIV medicines and tests from 9 public and 3 private sector facilities.