A shocking addition of as many as 519 new entrants in the HIV database in just Islamabad in the last 10 months should have sent the alarm bells ringing loud and in all directions. To our greatest misfortune, so overburdened has been the country’s healthcare system in the last three years (thanks to the unrelenting onslaught of the pandemics) that neither determination nor adequate resources can be found to put the brakes on this fast-intensifying situation. If we go by UNAIDS estimates, the number of cases in Pakistan is growing by leaps and bounds (most rapid in all of Asia). As a result of a terrifying uptick (84 per cent) in the last decades, there are said to be around 200,000 HIV/AIDS cases all around us. That Pakistan chose to run in the opposite direction when all of the world was witnessing a decline in cases does not even begin to encapsulate our miseries. As per data, only 21 per cent of those infected are aware of their status while just 12 per cent receive treatment. The situation is slightly better in Islamabad where the majority of the patients have gotten tested due to awareness of the risks involved with their unconventional lifestyles. On top of the causes-transmission list rest sexual preferences and addiction to injectable drugs; both of which are heavily stigmatised in of-the society. However, the disastrous 2019 outbreak of Larkana, especially in a country with the highest number of unsafe injections, speaks volumes about the urgency of the situation. In this day and age when an HIV patient can easily live a healthy life with a significantly reduced likelihood of progression to AIDS, it becomes the utmost responsibility of the government to ensure these patients are given the liberty and resources to rise above their predicament. A “game-changing” medicine introduced by the Sindh government for high-risk populations should be replicated in all of Pakistan. However, no matter how cutting-edge the medical research becomes, nothing worthwhile can be achieved in this battle until and unless both state and society join hands to support these patients–without any stigma; without any scorn. *