HIV Disease Burden and Stigma in Pakistan: The Role of Local Institutions
Abstract
With the ongoing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in the developing world, Pakistan has been registering 20,000 new HIV cases every year for the past few years, the highest rate of increase among all countries in the region.1 In Pakistan, HIV disease has affected high risk, key populations for more than 30 years2, with key populations defined as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, injections drug users, and recipients of contaminated blood.3,4 In April 2019, a completely new HIV landscape rose to the global spotlight when around 800 children tested positive (in 12 weeks period) for HIV in Sindh, Pakistan, followed by similar reports from other parts of the country.5 These new infections are attributed to new risk factors outside of the historical key populations, including use of contaminated needles for routine vaccination and intramuscular and intravenous medical treatment. These statistics were alarming: the country’s healthcare system was not ready, nor is it currently ready, for a widespread HIV epidemic. In addition to international aid, Pakistan requires active involvement from the local healthcare sector to curb the HIV epidemic. At the local level, an understanding of HIV disease is the first step towards this goal.
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Articles published in the Journal of Dow University of Health Sciences are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0/. This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium; provided the original work is properly cited and initial publication in this journal.
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Copyright (c) 2022 Fizza S. Gillani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Articles published in the Journal of Dow University of Health Sciences are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0/. This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium; provided the original work is properly cited and initial publication in this journal. 
