HIV/AIDS in Pakistan: the battle begins

Pakistan, the second most populous Muslim nation in the world, has started to finally experience and confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The country had been relatively safe from any indigenous HIV cases for around two decades, with most of the infections being attributable to deported HIV positive migr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Retrovirology 2007-03, Vol.4 (1), p.22-22
Main Authors: Rai, Mohammad A, Warraich, Haider J, Ali, Syed H, Nerurkar, Vivek R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - drug therapy
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - epidemiology
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - prevention & control
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - transmission
AIDS (Disease)
Communicable Disease Control - methods
Control
Epidemics
Female
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Male
Pakistan
Pakistan - epidemiology
Political aspects
Risk Factors
Sexual Behavior
Social aspects
Substance Abuse, Intravenous - complications
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pakistan, the second most populous Muslim nation in the world, has started to finally experience and confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The country had been relatively safe from any indigenous HIV cases for around two decades, with most of the infections being attributable to deported HIV positive migrants from the Gulf States. However, the virus finally seems to have found a home-base, as evidenced by the recent HIV outbreaks among the injection drug user community. Extremely high-risk behavior has also been documented among Hijras (sex workers) and long-distance truck drivers. The weak government response coupled with the extremely distressing social demographics of this South-Asian republic also helps to compound the problem. The time is ripe now to prepare in advance, to take the appropriate measures to curtail further spread of the disease. If this opportunity is not utilized right now, little if at all could be done later.
ISSN:1742-4690
1742-4690
DOI:10.1186/1742-4690-4-22