That Pakistan was named among the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics, with new infections tripling since 2010, should be a national alarm. Instead, all we got was a polite press note.
At World AIDS Day, officials quoted grim stats (16,000 cases in 2010 versus 48,000 in 2024) and our leaders quickly moved on. This is a national crisis being treated as a footnote, even as the virus reaches children, mothers and unsuspecting spouses across the country.
Successive governments have sliced the health budget like an unwanted expense. Pakistan spends barely 1% of its GDP on health, and this year the federal health ministry’s development budget was slashed by 47%. Key HIV programs now suffer because state coffers are empty. A recent Global Fund review cut $27 million from our AIDS, TB and malaria grants, citing mismanagement and leadership gaps. As a result of which, our safety net for containment is unravelling just as the epidemic spreads unchecked.
We claim to fight stigma, yet shame anyone who admits to an HIV test. In Pakistan, HIV was long seen as a distant crime. It was never our problem. Now even children are victims, infected by unsafe injections, contaminated blood transfusions and negligent clinics. Pregnant mothers get almost no help, as only 14% of HIV-positive women who need antiretrovirals for their babies receive them. The rest fall off the radar. Fear, misinformation and outdated laws keep people hiding.
The latest WHO and UNAIDS slogan is “Overcoming disruption, transforming the response.” Such slogans mean little unless backed by real funding and follow-through. Pakistan’s national AIDS strategy expired long ago, and we need a rewrite backed by serious resources.
We need mobile testing vans in villages, free needle exchanges for addicts, and strict oversight of blood banks. Clinics must be held accountable. Health inspectors should be empowered to punish unsafe practices.
Most importantly, civil society must mobilise religious and community leaders to change attitudes, not just hand out awareness pamphlets once a year. If not for the sake of those who breathe under the green-and-white flag, then let the state understand a harder truth: Pakistan will not receive an international bailout for this political epidemic. No global lender writes cheques for nations that manufacture their own instability. *