To train the journalists of both print and electronic media on how to cover HIV&AIDS-related issues, Health Vision Foundation with the pecuniary assistance of Actionaid Pakistan arranged a Media Workshop on HIV/AIDS recently at Karachi Press Club.
Speaking as the Chief Guest of the occasion, Dr. Nafis Sohail, Provincial Program Manager, Sindh AIDS Control Program said that HIV/AIDS has not only becoming a serious healthcare burden for the governments but it is also giving birth to many social problems due to misconceptions about this disease in our society.
She said that there was a need to encourage people with HIV to be registered with the programme. “Once they gain confidence about their acceptance without having their dignity compromised, we may hope to evolve a strategy for zero HIV/AIDS prevalence,” she said.
Elaborating her stance, she said there was presently a wide gap between the reported cases of HIV that comes to 46,200 against the 3,000 that are actually registered in Sindh. As for AIDS cases, she said 288 patients were being provided anti retro viral treatment at the centres run by the Sindh HIV/AIDS Control Programme.
“Recent studies have established that there is more than five percent HIV prevalence among high risk groups as intravenous drug users and transgender people, enhancing chances of virus transmission among the general population,” she informed.
She urged them to tell the people to hate the disease, but not the patient. She said our society should accept the HIV positive people, and fear and hatred against them should be shunned.
He said media should play its role in removing this social discrimination, so that HIV/AIDS patients could be accepted by the society like the patients of other diseases. He said the media should also play its due role in raising awareness about prevention of this disease, so as to check its rapid spread.
Dr. Qamar Abbas Zaidi, said there is a misconception that only the illicit sexual relations are behind HIV/AIDS. He said the media should also tell people that in our country injection drug users (IDUs) and unsafe transfusion of blood are amongst major factors behind the spread of HIV/AIDS.
He said in the Gulf countries the migrant workers, if found HIV/AIDS positive, are not told about their disease, but simply sent to jail or deported to their countries of origin.
At present, a higher proportion of people have been infected through sexual transmission, but the epidemic is expanding rapidly among injecting drug users, with a high reported prevalence among drug users in Karachi alone.
Earlier, Muhammad Fareed, President Health Vision Foundation briefed the participants about aims and object of the workshop. He said that Actionaid is the only organization granting different NGOs for different activities against HIV/AIDS whereas all the funding all closed. By this kind activities people are having awareness regarding HIV/AIDS. He thanked Actionaid for their support in organizing this media workshop and assured full support in future activities.