LEA’s to be engaged to counter HIV stigma, discrimination

Islamabad:A one-day ‘consultative session’ was organised by the UNDP and UNAIDS to draw a strategy for engaging the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to counter HIV stigma and discrimination in the society towards patients suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The ‘consultative session was held at the Police Lines in Islamabad Tuesday and 60 persons representing the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the NH&MP, ICT Police, civil society organisation and students from various universities attended the session. Dr Syed Kaleem Imam, the former Federal Secretary, moderated the session. He underscored the significance of ensuring equitable and equal access to HIV services and solutions. “There is an urgent need to eliminate barriers hindering the achievement of successful HIV outcomes. For the purpose there is a need for allocation of sufficient resources to sustain efficient HIV response and their integration into broader health system, social protection frameworks, humanitarian settings and pandemic responses,” Dr Imam said while addressing the participants.

Ms Yuki Takemoto, the UNAIDS Country Head for Pakistan and Afghanistan said that it was of critical importance to sensitize communities towards challenges posed by HIV/AIDS. Ms Takemoto strongly advocated for active community participation in safeguarding against the disease. Dr Fahmida, the Community Support Programme Adviser with the UNAIDS, had a very engrossing interactive session with the participants, explaining various myths and misconceptions surrounding the HIV/AIDS disease.

“These myths and misconceptions are leading towards increase in new HIV infections because people are shy of discussing the disease and prefer to go into isolation instead of going for right medical treatment and even psychological counselling, something which is very important to contain and treat the disease,” Ms Fahmida said. She said that despite implementation of strategic frameworks and national/provincial AIDS strategies, the country continues to witness a rapid increase in new HIV infections. There are alarming statistics presented in the session which reveal an 84 per cent surge in the number of new infections over the past decade while a mere 13.2 per cent of PLHIV receive the necessary treatment.

“This clearly reflects that the current strategies are inadequate in controlling the epidemic,” she added. Zubair Hashmi, the Inspector-General of NH&MP, while briefly addressing the participants in the session focused on behavioural and emotional strengths of people which mainly guide them towards the decisions they finally take in any testing situation.

“This aspect need to be further explored while a strategy is devised for dealing with the issue, which indeed a sensitive one in our society because of the reactions of public towards the individuals infected with this virus,” IG Zubair Hashmi said. The Additional Director-General FIA, Jan Mohammed, DIG Shoaib Khurram, SSP Umar and Ms Christina along with others, expressed their support for the development of the engagement strategy. The participants believe that the finalised strategy will foster a supportive environment, promote awareness and advance efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. UNDP will conduct similar sessions in other provincial metropolises to gather further input before finalizing the engagement strategy.