20,000 HIV Patients Missing in Pakistan Sparks Epidemic Fears

According to an editorial in leading Pakistani daily 'The Express Tribune', Pakistan has emerged as one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemic hotspots in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, covering 22 countries in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia.

It added that over the last 15 years, new infections have risen sharply by 200 per cent, climbing from 16,000 in 2010 to 48,000 in 2024.

The report noted that more concerning is the fact that public awareness campaigns and harm reduction strategies have failed to achieve any meaningful results.

Meanwhile, it said that the 84,000 people registered are only a fraction of the estimated 369,000 people living with HIV nationwide, with the largely untreated population making it increasingly difficult to identify who falls within 'high-risk' groups.

"While unsafe sexual practices and intravenous drug use with used needles are still the main transmission routes, other medical routes, such as unsafe injection practices, unsterile blood transfusions, weak infection control and unchecked quackery, are driving transmission to children and spouses," The Express Tribune mentioned.

Highlighting that children are among the most affected group, with new infections in the 0-14 age group rising from 530 in 2010 to 1,800 in 2023, the report said, "In several outbreak hotspots - including Larkana, Taunsa and Hyderabad - children comprised more than 80 per cent of new detected cases. And despite these outbreaks, banned reusable syringes are still available in the market, and blood bank regulation remains spotty."

The report stated that the National AIDS Control Programme, heavily dependent on external assistance-- is now severely "underfunded and understaffed", with $800,000 worth of donated supplies stolen by corrupt local actors.

Earlier this week, a report highlighted that the rapid rise of HIV cases in Pakistan is not a slow-burning public health concern but a system failure unfolding in real time. Children and low-risk individuals are infected with HIV not due to behaviour but through the healthcare system meant to protect them, a report has detailed.

Two converging failures are behind this trajectory, an editorial in Pakistan's leading daily Dawn mentioned.

"The first is the collapse of basic infection control across large parts of our healthcare network. The second is the persistence of syringe reuse, despite a nationwide ban on conventional disposable syringes in 2021. Together, they have created what experts describe as a 'man-made epidemic'. The trail of evidence is troubling," it stated.

- IANS