Daily Times

The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination joined hands with the rest of the world to commemorate World AIDS Day in Pakistan. Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health attended the World AIDS Day event and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to ending the AIDS endemic.

The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is “End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics.” The AIDS epidemic in the Asia Pacific is rising and becoming challenging in Pakistan. There has been a significant rise of people with HIV living in Pakistan, with 84% of these new infections occurring between 2010-2021.

Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination; Common Management Unit (CMU) for AIDS, TB, and Malaria in Islamabad on Thursday to commemorate the World AIDS Day 2021.

Influential diplomats, representatives of United Nations Country Team (UNCT); UNAIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM); Health, Population, Nutrition and Health Development Partners, Association of People Living with AIDS (APLHIV) and other community-based organizations working on HIV attended the event.

SAPM Dr. Faisal Sultan shared that the ministry has been working closely with provinces to take steps to work with communities to halt the spread of new infections. “With support from Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, we are providing free of cost HIV diagnostic, treatment, care and support services to people living with HIV through dedicated HIV treatment centers. Even multi-month dispensation has been ensured during lockdowns through door-to-door service provision,” he added.

As the world’s attention is focused on the COVID-19 global pandemic, there is a danger that the ongoing HIV and AIDS pandemic could be forgotten. That is why the Government of Pakistan, at both the national and provincial levels, despite competing priorities and fiscal limitations, and with the support of partners like UNAIDS, UNDP, WHO UNICEF, local civil society organizations and academia has strived to provide HIV prevention and treatment services through high impact community-based HIV prevention programs.

SAPM Dr. Faisal further shared that, “we devised national and provincial AIDS Strategies, setting the plan of action for 2021-2025 that show support from the government to create an enabling environment with multi-sectoral engagement to address legislative, socio-cultural-economic, religious, political, legal, and financial determinants that can influence HIV awareness, education, prevention, care, treatment, and support initiatives.”

He concluded by pledging to lead efforts towards increased government spending to cover all aspects of the National HIV response especially along the HIV prevention and treatment cascade by mobilizing domestic resources and the integration of HIV services into the health system.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony Ms. Yuki Takemoto, UNAIDS Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan, said that HIV/AIDS still threatens the world including Pakistan.

Sharing his opinion, UN Resident Coordinator, Pakistan, Julien Harneis, said that for the course corrections, we need to end AIDS as it will also protect Pakistan against future pandemics.

“We need a paradigm shift in health financing and invest in community-led, human rights-based, gender transformative responses, essential workers, equitable access to life-saving medicines, data systems that can detect inequalities, and rights-based approaches that address those inequalities,” he explained.

Speaking in the ceremony, Asghar Satti, National Coordinator of Association of People Living with HIV and AIDS, stressed for HIV testing for ensuring that all people living with HIV can lead a healthy and productive life.

“Both AIDS and COVID-19 can be ended, and future pandemics can be prevented with strong political leadership, action and accountability,” he remarked.

This ceremony was followed by the handicraft stalls displayed by marginalized section of society and work by the Joint UN Team on AIDS in support of the HIV response in Pakistan and Women’s Economic Empowerment in which handicrafts by women living with HIV were displayed.