At least two labourers died from AIDS there in the past year. Both had been deported HIV-positive from the United Arab Emirates.
"We don't know whose turn will be next because people tend to hide the disease. If people die of AIDS, his relatives don't confirm their death from the disease," said Dr Habibullah Jan, who runs an NGO and a blood bank offering free screening to people in Kurram Agency.
Since 1990, 110 HIV/AIDS cases have been reported in federally administered tribal areas (Fata) that have a population of six million in its seven tribal units over 27,224 square kilometres.
Located along the 1,600-km border with Afghanistan are the Fata areas administered by the federal government of Pakistan. Many Fata residents migrate abroad for work and send remittances back home as the areas are impoverished.
"Not many suffered from AIDS. Only deportees from foreign countries died from it. The deportees are often HIV-infected and local people are aware of it," Dr Habibullah said.
A Middle Eastern country deported a driver last year because he was tested HIV-positive in medical screening, which is mandatory for visa renewal. Workers with HIV are deported straight away without being allowed to take luggage from home, he said.
"This is an inhuman act on the part of the officials of these countries. They should inform the Pakistan government about the expulsion of HIV patients so that others can be protected from infections," said Dr Quaid Saeed, HIV/AIDS programme officer for WHO. "Lack of screening facilities at airports has intensified fears of infections among patients' wives and children," he said.
Dr Quaid suggested that patients back from UAE and other Middle Eastern countries should be examined at airports and -- if tested positive -- authorities should inform their relatives, especially their spouses.
Two patients from Fata, including a woman, tested positive for HIV at Pakistan Medical Research Centre under Khyber Medical College in Peshawar in July.
"A woman, 34, was tested HIV-positive on July 14. She came from Mohmand Agency, one of Fata's tribal units. Her husband, who had worked in Dubai for 20 years, was deported to Pakistan a year ago," a pathologist said.
The lives of the workers' wives and children are at risk because they often are not told that their loved ones have HIV.
Often too, people do not usually come for an HIV test, but doctors refer them to AIDS screening when the patients see them for other diseases, he said.
The same woman was operated on for miscarriage in hospital in Peshawar and her husband asked the doctor to carry out an HIV test on his wife, which turned out to be positive.
Such patients are harmful to other patients who are routinely operated on in the same operating theatres. Oblivious of AIDS infections, the surgeons might have used the same operating table for other patients without fumigation.
Another person, 45, who came from Khyber Agency, was tested positive at Pakistan Medical Research Centre the same day. More than a month ago, a young woman in Kurram Agency died after her husband, who worked as a porter in Dubai, died last year of AIDS. He had been expelled after an HIV test.
Doctors insist that the disease did not turn endemic. But some pathologists in the city said they recorded 20 HIV/AIDS cases in the last two years and all patients had been deported from the Middle East.
"The number of patients might be higher as people avoid blood tests for HIV in fear of social stigma. Nor do they inform their friends and relatives as it is a sex-borne disease," said Dr Muzaffar Tareen, a clinical sexologist.
Dr Tareen, who earned a degree from California in sexually transmitted infections, said the deported people are aware of the disease. But they often keep it secret, and transmit it to their unsuspecting wives and children. He said the workers living abroad -- away from their wives -- often end up in risky sexual behaviour, including commercial sex.
Unfortunately, officials said non-governmental organisations involved in building anti-AIDS awareness are not operating in the region.
Dr Iftikhar Ali, programme manager of the HIV/AIDS control programme for Fata, said the project planned a campaign to train medical staff and build awareness through community mobilisation as part of preventive measures. Doctors, women health-visitors, paramedics, health workers and dispensers trained in preventive and palliative methods in the first phase of the programme, he said.
The second phase will cover Kurram Agency, Bajaur, Miranshah and frontier regions of Peshawar and Kohat and focus on building awareness through special group sessions, workshops and gatherings for tribal elders, councillors, barbers, journalists and religious leaders, Dr Ali said. Organisers will distribute AIDS kits among hospitals and information literature as part of the programme.
The Fata health directorate laid out a plan to control the disease in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF and the federal and NWFP governments.
He said that 49 HIV cases were recorded in Kurram Agency, 27 in North Waziristan, 18 in South Waziristan, seven in Orakzai Agency, six in Khyber and three in Bajaur Agency.
Of 34 million U.S. dollars earmarked for the countrywide awareness campaign, only 70,000 dollars has been allocated to Fata.
Pakistan recorded about 2,800 HIV/AIDS cases. The figure will reach 80,000 if all the people are screened for the disease, a WHO official said. He blamed the increase in AIDS cases on the low literacy rate, poor socio-economic conditions and risky sexual behaviour among mobile populations such as truckers, barbers, quacks and Fata expatriates in common destinations for migrant work such as the Gulf states.
Dr Hussein A Gezairy, regional director for WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region, said in a message to mark World AIDS Day: "The theme of this year's campaign is HIV/AIDS: Stand up for the challenge. It's everyone's responsibility. Through this theme, the World Health Organisation (Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean) is trying to motivate all members of the community to play their roles in response to HIV/AIDS."
He said that by the end of 2004, the number of people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in the region reached more than 715,000. The number of new infections occurring in that year was 92,000, the second highest proportional increase in the world, compared with other regions. "This situation should force us all to realise the size of the challenge and to stand together in facing it," he said. "We all need to share the responsibility."
DOUBLE DISCRIMINATION
AIDS patients suffer also from lack of treatment in hospitals, a doctor told ‘The Dawn', an English-language newspaper in Pakistan. Most patients are denied admission to hospitals as they have no separate wards for them.
"Neither of the three teaching hospitals in the city admitted a 20-year-old woman, who contracted the disease from her husband. Her husband died of AIDS in May," a doctor said.
Five years ago, the Khyber Agency-based woman married the 30-year-old man, who worked as labourer in Saudi Arabia. "Now she and her two minor daughters are running from one place to another for treatment. She needs symptomatic treatment, which is not forthcoming," he said. Her daughters, one aged three years and the other four months, have also been diagnosed with HIV. "My mother did not approve of my marriage with a married man, but my father forced me into it," the doctor quoted the woman as telling him.
"The woman cannot afford the education and upbringing of her daughters, let alone medicines," he said. The woman said the hospital doctors refused to eve examine her.
Another doctor, who works for an NGO, said he sent two AIDS patients to hospital, but doctors and nurses did not take care of them. "Health professionals were afraid of touching the patients," he said.
Patients in need of emergency treatment are often denied treatment in hospital. "Dozens of health workers, doctors, nurses and technicians have been tested positive for hepatitis-C and are paying for their treatment themselves," a pathologist said, explaining this behaviour.
The provincial AIDS Control Programme requested hospitals in Peshawar to allocate isolated rooms for AIDS treatment three months ago, but the request went unheard, he said. Authorities closed the isolation room of a local teaching hospital for fumigation after an HIV-positive mother gave birth there.
A 17-year-old woman from Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency was brought to the labour room, but was shifted to the isolation room when it was discovered that she had AIDS, said a doctor who attended to the woman. The room where she delivered the baby was closed for fumigation afterwards, the doctor added.
According to other doctors of the hospital, the woman's relatives tried to get her admitted to other hospitals, but none of the gynaecologists agreed to treat her there. "We knew she had AIDS, but we have the means to help all sorts of patients coming here for treatment," said a gynaecologist who was part of the team that attended to the woman. This is the second time that an HIV-positive mother gave birth at a Peshawar-based hospital - a 34-year-old from Miranshah was tested HIV-positive whose husband worked in Dubai for 20 years before being deported back to Pakistan.
HOPE AGAINST HOPE
A woman who got HIV from her husband is running a public awareness campaign besides pushing for better treatment facilities.
Amina Bibi, whose husband died of AIDS last year, said she wanted to work to remove the social stigma associated with the disease. "I will contact people with HIV or AIDS to form an association and launch a joint struggle to force the government to make appropriate drugs available, at least in government hospitals," the 35-year-old woman said.
A five-year programme was launched in 2003 to check the spread of the disease through unscreened blood, commercial sex and syringe reuse. Despite its several recommendations, no province has a functional HIV/AIDS clinic. Hospitals are ill-prepared and do not have proper treatment facilities, said WHO's Dr Quaid.
Amina, who is from Kurram Agency, 270 kilometres west of Peshawar, contracted HIV from her husband who was deported from the UAE because of his HIV infection three years ago. He did not disclose it to his wife. Amina stressed the need for changing people's attitude toward HIV patients and urged the government to open treatment centres at government hospitals.
Because of the stigma attached with sexually transmitted diseases, patients avoid visiting hospitals, fearing a public disclosure, Dr Tareen said. "The situation is alarming. Drivers, sex workers, homosexuals no longer constitute a vulnerable group. We have patients who have never strayed but have been tested HIV-positive," he said.
Amina said: "It is a depressing situation. I feel it is my responsibility to lead the way or at least give hope to the people living with the disease."
Prof Fazle Raziq, a haematologist who heads the pathology section at Khyber Medical College in Peshawar, said many of those living with HIV were migrant workers back from the Middle East - some have stayed away from home for up to 20 years.
She expressed concern over the unfriendly attitude toward HIV/AIDS patients, especially women and children, who are looked down upon by their relatives.
Women who contracted the disease from their husbands and children from their fathers should be treated with love, Amina emphasised. She cited the example of relatives' hostility toward a two-year-old girl from Kurram Agency whose father had been sent back home from the UAE after he was diagnosed with AIDS three years ago.
"The women and children are not responsible for the infections. Treating them harshly makes no sense," she said.
"I was all right three years ago. My husband returned home, seriously ill, from Dubai. We took him to a doctor in the city. He had full-blown AIDS," said a woman from Khyber Agency.
Her husband died a month later and she gave birth to a girl a few months afterwards. "Now, my daughter and I are HIV-positive. Our family and neighbours have distanced themselves from us," said the 40-year-old woman, her daughter in her lap. (END/AMF/IPSAP/AY/BB/JS/011205)
http://www.theasiamediaforum.org/node/381
PESHAWAR, Sept 7: Twenty-three orphaned children in Hangu district and Parachinar Agency are unable to undergo HIV tests because they cannot pay the fee. “Their one or both parents have died of Aids. We need to ascertain if these children have been affected by the disease,” said Shahrayar Khan of the NGO, Roshan Development Society, which had so far registered 53 patients in Hangu and 102 in Orakzai and Kurram Agencies. He said that they had recorded 11 children in Hangu and 12 in Parachinar, Kurram Agency. Fathers, mothers or both of these children had died of HIV/Aids and now they are at the razor’s edge of being positive for the killer ailment. Most of these children are destined to having had HIV/Aids, but tests are urgently required, he said “We have conducted their Aids tests in the antiretroviral (ARV) therapy centre in Peshawar. All were negative. But they require HIV test, which is not available in Peshawar,” he added. In addition to the children, there are 31 HIV positive women, who needed treatment. He said that he had already informed that National Aids Control Programme (NACP) about the problem of these children. The HIV test costed about Rs4,000-5,000 but these children could not afford it. He said that all children were below four years of age and did not know about the disease, but the government and donor agencies were reluctant to extend assistance to them. “There may be more such children because most of the people deported from Middle Eastern countries after being tested positive for HIV/Aids belong to this area,” he said. He said that the NGO had also registered 31 women Aids patients, who needed treatment, adding that they had lost their husbands because of Aids and were now dependent on charities. “These poor women cannot afford expensive diagnosis and treatment,” he said.
News Source:http://www.dawn.com/2006/09/08/local30.htm
"We don't know whose turn will be next because people tend to hide the disease. If people die of AIDS, his relatives don't confirm their death from the disease," said Dr Habibullah Jan, who runs an NGO and a blood bank offering free screening to people in Kurram Agency.
Since 1990, 110 HIV/AIDS cases have been reported in federally administered tribal areas (Fata) that have a population of six million in its seven tribal units over 27,224 square kilometres.
Located along the 1,600-km border with Afghanistan are the Fata areas administered by the federal government of Pakistan. Many Fata residents migrate abroad for work and send remittances back home as the areas are impoverished.
"Not many suffered from AIDS. Only deportees from foreign countries died from it. The deportees are often HIV-infected and local people are aware of it," Dr Habibullah said.
A Middle Eastern country deported a driver last year because he was tested HIV-positive in medical screening, which is mandatory for visa renewal. Workers with HIV are deported straight away without being allowed to take luggage from home, he said.
"This is an inhuman act on the part of the officials of these countries. They should inform the Pakistan government about the expulsion of HIV patients so that others can be protected from infections," said Dr Quaid Saeed, HIV/AIDS programme officer for WHO. "Lack of screening facilities at airports has intensified fears of infections among patients' wives and children," he said.
Dr Quaid suggested that patients back from UAE and other Middle Eastern countries should be examined at airports and -- if tested positive -- authorities should inform their relatives, especially their spouses.
Two patients from Fata, including a woman, tested positive for HIV at Pakistan Medical Research Centre under Khyber Medical College in Peshawar in July.
"A woman, 34, was tested HIV-positive on July 14. She came from Mohmand Agency, one of Fata's tribal units. Her husband, who had worked in Dubai for 20 years, was deported to Pakistan a year ago," a pathologist said.
The lives of the workers' wives and children are at risk because they often are not told that their loved ones have HIV.
Often too, people do not usually come for an HIV test, but doctors refer them to AIDS screening when the patients see them for other diseases, he said.
The same woman was operated on for miscarriage in hospital in Peshawar and her husband asked the doctor to carry out an HIV test on his wife, which turned out to be positive.
Such patients are harmful to other patients who are routinely operated on in the same operating theatres. Oblivious of AIDS infections, the surgeons might have used the same operating table for other patients without fumigation.
Another person, 45, who came from Khyber Agency, was tested positive at Pakistan Medical Research Centre the same day. More than a month ago, a young woman in Kurram Agency died after her husband, who worked as a porter in Dubai, died last year of AIDS. He had been expelled after an HIV test.
Doctors insist that the disease did not turn endemic. But some pathologists in the city said they recorded 20 HIV/AIDS cases in the last two years and all patients had been deported from the Middle East.
"The number of patients might be higher as people avoid blood tests for HIV in fear of social stigma. Nor do they inform their friends and relatives as it is a sex-borne disease," said Dr Muzaffar Tareen, a clinical sexologist.
Dr Tareen, who earned a degree from California in sexually transmitted infections, said the deported people are aware of the disease. But they often keep it secret, and transmit it to their unsuspecting wives and children. He said the workers living abroad -- away from their wives -- often end up in risky sexual behaviour, including commercial sex.
Unfortunately, officials said non-governmental organisations involved in building anti-AIDS awareness are not operating in the region.
Dr Iftikhar Ali, programme manager of the HIV/AIDS control programme for Fata, said the project planned a campaign to train medical staff and build awareness through community mobilisation as part of preventive measures. Doctors, women health-visitors, paramedics, health workers and dispensers trained in preventive and palliative methods in the first phase of the programme, he said.
The second phase will cover Kurram Agency, Bajaur, Miranshah and frontier regions of Peshawar and Kohat and focus on building awareness through special group sessions, workshops and gatherings for tribal elders, councillors, barbers, journalists and religious leaders, Dr Ali said. Organisers will distribute AIDS kits among hospitals and information literature as part of the programme.
The Fata health directorate laid out a plan to control the disease in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF and the federal and NWFP governments.
He said that 49 HIV cases were recorded in Kurram Agency, 27 in North Waziristan, 18 in South Waziristan, seven in Orakzai Agency, six in Khyber and three in Bajaur Agency.
Of 34 million U.S. dollars earmarked for the countrywide awareness campaign, only 70,000 dollars has been allocated to Fata.
Pakistan recorded about 2,800 HIV/AIDS cases. The figure will reach 80,000 if all the people are screened for the disease, a WHO official said. He blamed the increase in AIDS cases on the low literacy rate, poor socio-economic conditions and risky sexual behaviour among mobile populations such as truckers, barbers, quacks and Fata expatriates in common destinations for migrant work such as the Gulf states.
Dr Hussein A Gezairy, regional director for WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region, said in a message to mark World AIDS Day: "The theme of this year's campaign is HIV/AIDS: Stand up for the challenge. It's everyone's responsibility. Through this theme, the World Health Organisation (Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean) is trying to motivate all members of the community to play their roles in response to HIV/AIDS."
He said that by the end of 2004, the number of people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in the region reached more than 715,000. The number of new infections occurring in that year was 92,000, the second highest proportional increase in the world, compared with other regions. "This situation should force us all to realise the size of the challenge and to stand together in facing it," he said. "We all need to share the responsibility."
DOUBLE DISCRIMINATION
AIDS patients suffer also from lack of treatment in hospitals, a doctor told ‘The Dawn', an English-language newspaper in Pakistan. Most patients are denied admission to hospitals as they have no separate wards for them.
"Neither of the three teaching hospitals in the city admitted a 20-year-old woman, who contracted the disease from her husband. Her husband died of AIDS in May," a doctor said.
Five years ago, the Khyber Agency-based woman married the 30-year-old man, who worked as labourer in Saudi Arabia. "Now she and her two minor daughters are running from one place to another for treatment. She needs symptomatic treatment, which is not forthcoming," he said. Her daughters, one aged three years and the other four months, have also been diagnosed with HIV. "My mother did not approve of my marriage with a married man, but my father forced me into it," the doctor quoted the woman as telling him.
"The woman cannot afford the education and upbringing of her daughters, let alone medicines," he said. The woman said the hospital doctors refused to eve examine her.
Another doctor, who works for an NGO, said he sent two AIDS patients to hospital, but doctors and nurses did not take care of them. "Health professionals were afraid of touching the patients," he said.
Patients in need of emergency treatment are often denied treatment in hospital. "Dozens of health workers, doctors, nurses and technicians have been tested positive for hepatitis-C and are paying for their treatment themselves," a pathologist said, explaining this behaviour.
The provincial AIDS Control Programme requested hospitals in Peshawar to allocate isolated rooms for AIDS treatment three months ago, but the request went unheard, he said. Authorities closed the isolation room of a local teaching hospital for fumigation after an HIV-positive mother gave birth there.
A 17-year-old woman from Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency was brought to the labour room, but was shifted to the isolation room when it was discovered that she had AIDS, said a doctor who attended to the woman. The room where she delivered the baby was closed for fumigation afterwards, the doctor added.
According to other doctors of the hospital, the woman's relatives tried to get her admitted to other hospitals, but none of the gynaecologists agreed to treat her there. "We knew she had AIDS, but we have the means to help all sorts of patients coming here for treatment," said a gynaecologist who was part of the team that attended to the woman. This is the second time that an HIV-positive mother gave birth at a Peshawar-based hospital - a 34-year-old from Miranshah was tested HIV-positive whose husband worked in Dubai for 20 years before being deported back to Pakistan.
HOPE AGAINST HOPE
A woman who got HIV from her husband is running a public awareness campaign besides pushing for better treatment facilities.
Amina Bibi, whose husband died of AIDS last year, said she wanted to work to remove the social stigma associated with the disease. "I will contact people with HIV or AIDS to form an association and launch a joint struggle to force the government to make appropriate drugs available, at least in government hospitals," the 35-year-old woman said.
A five-year programme was launched in 2003 to check the spread of the disease through unscreened blood, commercial sex and syringe reuse. Despite its several recommendations, no province has a functional HIV/AIDS clinic. Hospitals are ill-prepared and do not have proper treatment facilities, said WHO's Dr Quaid.
Amina, who is from Kurram Agency, 270 kilometres west of Peshawar, contracted HIV from her husband who was deported from the UAE because of his HIV infection three years ago. He did not disclose it to his wife. Amina stressed the need for changing people's attitude toward HIV patients and urged the government to open treatment centres at government hospitals.
Because of the stigma attached with sexually transmitted diseases, patients avoid visiting hospitals, fearing a public disclosure, Dr Tareen said. "The situation is alarming. Drivers, sex workers, homosexuals no longer constitute a vulnerable group. We have patients who have never strayed but have been tested HIV-positive," he said.
Amina said: "It is a depressing situation. I feel it is my responsibility to lead the way or at least give hope to the people living with the disease."
Prof Fazle Raziq, a haematologist who heads the pathology section at Khyber Medical College in Peshawar, said many of those living with HIV were migrant workers back from the Middle East - some have stayed away from home for up to 20 years.
She expressed concern over the unfriendly attitude toward HIV/AIDS patients, especially women and children, who are looked down upon by their relatives.
Women who contracted the disease from their husbands and children from their fathers should be treated with love, Amina emphasised. She cited the example of relatives' hostility toward a two-year-old girl from Kurram Agency whose father had been sent back home from the UAE after he was diagnosed with AIDS three years ago.
"The women and children are not responsible for the infections. Treating them harshly makes no sense," she said.
"I was all right three years ago. My husband returned home, seriously ill, from Dubai. We took him to a doctor in the city. He had full-blown AIDS," said a woman from Khyber Agency.
Her husband died a month later and she gave birth to a girl a few months afterwards. "Now, my daughter and I are HIV-positive. Our family and neighbours have distanced themselves from us," said the 40-year-old woman, her daughter in her lap. (END/AMF/IPSAP/AY/BB/JS/011205)
http://www.theasiamediaforum.org/node/381
PESHAWAR, Sept 7: Twenty-three orphaned children in Hangu district and Parachinar Agency are unable to undergo HIV tests because they cannot pay the fee. “Their one or both parents have died of Aids. We need to ascertain if these children have been affected by the disease,” said Shahrayar Khan of the NGO, Roshan Development Society, which had so far registered 53 patients in Hangu and 102 in Orakzai and Kurram Agencies. He said that they had recorded 11 children in Hangu and 12 in Parachinar, Kurram Agency. Fathers, mothers or both of these children had died of HIV/Aids and now they are at the razor’s edge of being positive for the killer ailment. Most of these children are destined to having had HIV/Aids, but tests are urgently required, he said “We have conducted their Aids tests in the antiretroviral (ARV) therapy centre in Peshawar. All were negative. But they require HIV test, which is not available in Peshawar,” he added. In addition to the children, there are 31 HIV positive women, who needed treatment. He said that he had already informed that National Aids Control Programme (NACP) about the problem of these children. The HIV test costed about Rs4,000-5,000 but these children could not afford it. He said that all children were below four years of age and did not know about the disease, but the government and donor agencies were reluctant to extend assistance to them. “There may be more such children because most of the people deported from Middle Eastern countries after being tested positive for HIV/Aids belong to this area,” he said. He said that the NGO had also registered 31 women Aids patients, who needed treatment, adding that they had lost their husbands because of Aids and were now dependent on charities. “These poor women cannot afford expensive diagnosis and treatment,” he said.
News Source:http://www.dawn.com/2006/09/08/local30.htm
فاٹا کے لوگ ایڈز کے علاج سے محروم
ایڈز کے مریضوں سے ہاتھ نہیں ملایا جاتا اور انہیں گناہگار کہا جاتا ہے
پاکستان کے صوبہ سرحد اور وفاق کے زیرِ انتظام قبائلی علاقے کے سنگم پر واقع ضلع ہنگو کے ایچ آئی وی ایڈز میں مبتلا پچاس سالہ وقعت شاہ سے جب پوچھا جاۓ کہ طبیعت کیسی ہے اور علاج کس مرحلے میں ہے تو جواب میں کئی مرتبہ سر کو نفی میں ہلا ہلا کر کہتے ہیں کہ ’حکومت نے کچھ نہیں دیا ہے ۔‘
وہ کہتے ہیں: ’گذشتہ دو سال سے علاج کرانےکے وعدوں پر گزارہ ہورہاہے۔ایڈز کی دوائیاں مہنگی ہیں اور ساتھ میں بچوں کو بھی تو پالنا پڑتا ہے بس زندگی کے دن ہیں گن رہا ہوں۔‘
نو سال سے ایڈز کے مرض میں مبتلا وقعت شاہ اس لیے خوش قسمت ہیں کہ پشاور میں پاکستان دیہی ترقیاتی پروگرام کے نام سے ایک این جی او کے ساتھ کوہاٹ میں ایڈز پروجیکٹ میں بطور ملازم کام کرتے ہیں اور انہیں کچھ حد تک علاج کاموقع میسر آجاتاہے۔
مگر صوبہ سرحد بالخصوص سات قبائلی ایجنسیوں کے غریب ایڈز زدہ افراد جن میں بچے اور خواتین بھی شامل ہیں ہر قسم کے علاج سے محروم ہیں۔ سرحد ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے مطابق اس وقت صوبے میں چارسو ساٹھ مریضوں میں سے ساٹھ سے ستر فیصد مریضوں کا تعلق قبائلی علاقوں سے ہے جن میں زیادہ تر کرم ایجنسی اور شمالی اور جنوبی وزیرستان سے تعلق رکھتے ہیں۔
سرحد ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے ڈاکٹر بلال کا کہنا ہے کہ قبائلی علاقوں میں اس وقت ایڈز کے حوالے سے صورتحال اس لیے تشویشناک ہے کہ وہاں پر ایچ آئی وی ایڈز سے بچاؤ، آکاہی اور علاج کیلئے جامع اور سنجیدہ بنیادوں پر کوئی کام نہیں ہوا ہے۔
ان کے بقول اگر مزید غفلت برتی گئی تو مریضوں کی تعداد میں پانچ سے سات فیصد مزید اضافہ ہوسکتاہے۔ قبائلی علاقوں کے لوگ کافی تعداد میں محنت مزدوری کے لیے خلیجی ممالک بالخصوص ابوظہبی اور دبئی جاتے ہیں اور ڈاکٹر بلال احمد کے مطابق وقت کے ساتھ ساتھ جنسی سرگرمیوں میں ملوث ہو کر ایچ آئی وی ایڈز میں مبتلا ہوجاتے ہیں۔
ڈاکٹر بلال کے مطابق وہاں کے حکام خون کی سالانہ تشخیص کے بعد انہیں ایچ آئی وی پازیٹیو پاکر پاکستان واپس بیج دیتے ہیں۔ پاکستان واپس آ کر سماجی دباؤ کے تحت یہ لوگ کسی کو کچھ نہیں بتاتے اور ایچ آئی وی وائرس اپنے بچوں کو منتقل کردیتے ہیں۔
سرحد ایڈز پروگرام کی ڈپٹی ڈائریکٹر ڈاکٹر نسرین کا کہنا ہے کہ قبائلی علاقوں کے خاندان کے خاندان ایچ آئی وی ایڈز میں مبتلا ہیں لیکن خوف کی وجہ سے کوئی بھی سامنے نہیں آرہا ہے۔
اس بات کی تائید کوہاٹ میں غیر حکومتی ادارے پاکستان دیہی ترقیاتی پروگرام کی ایڈز پروجیکٹ کی انچارج غزالہ بھی کرتی ہیں۔مس غزالہ کے بقول سماجی دباؤ اور قدامت پرستی کے معاشرتی رجحانات کیوجہ سے ایڈز کے مریض سخت ذہنی دباو کا شکار ہیں۔
انھوں نے ایک خاتون کے حوالے سے بتایا کہ اس کے گھر والے اس سے ہاتھ نہیں ملاتے اور اسے باورچی خانے میں جانے سے روکتے ہیں۔
یہ صرف اس خاتون کی کہانی نہیں جس کا ذکر مس غزالہ کرتی ہیں بلکہ وقعت شاہ بھی اس قسم کا گلہ کرتے ہوے نظر آئے اور کہا کہ گاؤں کے لوگ ان سے ملنے سے گریز کرتے ہیں اور انکو گناہگار کہتے رہتے ہیں۔
گرچہ قبائلی علاقوں کیلئے حکومت نے ایڈز کنٹرول کا ادارہ بنایا ہے مگر اسکی فعالیت نہ ہونے کے برابر ہے۔سماجی دباؤ کے علاوہ مریضوں کو علاج کیلۓ دوائی تو دور کی بات ہے تشخیص کیلۓ ایجنسی کےسطح پر بھی کوئی انتظامات نہیں کۓ گۓ ہیں۔
ڈاکٹر افتخار علی فاٹا ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے سربراہ ہیں اور انکا کہنا ہے کہ حکومت کیلۓ وہاں کام کرنا اس لیۓ مشکل ہے کہ سیکس اور کنڈوم اور دیگر جنسی اصطلاحات پر کھل کر بات نہیں کی جاسکتی۔
انکے بقول حکومت مستقبل قریب میں ایڈز کے بچاؤ کے حوالے سے آگاہی مہم شروع کررہی ہے جسمیں علماء اور قبائلی عمائدین شامل کیۓ جائیں گے۔انکے بقول خلیجی ممالک سے آنے والے افراد کیلۓ خون کی تشخیص لازمی بنانے پر بھی بہت جلد عملدرآمد کیا جائیگا۔
دیکھا جاۓ تو اس وقت فاٹا ایڈو کنٹرول پروگرام اور سرحد ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے علاوہ بہت سی غیر حکومتی ادارے ایڈز سے بچاؤ کیلۓ کام کرنے میں مصروف ہیں جنکے اہلکاروں کی تعداد صوبہ اور قبائلی علاقوں کے ایچ ائی وي ایڈز میں مبتلا چارسو ساٹھ مریضوں سے زیادہ ہے۔
لیکن پھر بھی ایڈز کے بارے میں آ گاہی کے پروگرام اور علاج کا بندوبست مؤثر نہیں ہے اور ایچ ائي وی ایڈز کی ادویات اسلام آباد تک پہنچنے کے باوجود ضرورت مندوں تک تاحال نہیں پہنچ سکی ہیں
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2005/12/051130_aids_fata_rza.shtml
shafiqueahmed110.com - کرم ایجنسی اور فاٹا میں ایڈز کی صورت حال Silence on HIV/AIDS Since 199
ایڈز کے مریضوں سے ہاتھ نہیں ملایا جاتا اور انہیں گناہگار کہا جاتا ہے
پاکستان کے صوبہ سرحد اور وفاق کے زیرِ انتظام قبائلی علاقے کے سنگم پر واقع ضلع ہنگو کے ایچ آئی وی ایڈز میں مبتلا پچاس سالہ وقعت شاہ سے جب پوچھا جاۓ کہ طبیعت کیسی ہے اور علاج کس مرحلے میں ہے تو جواب میں کئی مرتبہ سر کو نفی میں ہلا ہلا کر کہتے ہیں کہ ’حکومت نے کچھ نہیں دیا ہے ۔‘
وہ کہتے ہیں: ’گذشتہ دو سال سے علاج کرانےکے وعدوں پر گزارہ ہورہاہے۔ایڈز کی دوائیاں مہنگی ہیں اور ساتھ میں بچوں کو بھی تو پالنا پڑتا ہے بس زندگی کے دن ہیں گن رہا ہوں۔‘
نو سال سے ایڈز کے مرض میں مبتلا وقعت شاہ اس لیے خوش قسمت ہیں کہ پشاور میں پاکستان دیہی ترقیاتی پروگرام کے نام سے ایک این جی او کے ساتھ کوہاٹ میں ایڈز پروجیکٹ میں بطور ملازم کام کرتے ہیں اور انہیں کچھ حد تک علاج کاموقع میسر آجاتاہے۔
مگر صوبہ سرحد بالخصوص سات قبائلی ایجنسیوں کے غریب ایڈز زدہ افراد جن میں بچے اور خواتین بھی شامل ہیں ہر قسم کے علاج سے محروم ہیں۔ سرحد ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے مطابق اس وقت صوبے میں چارسو ساٹھ مریضوں میں سے ساٹھ سے ستر فیصد مریضوں کا تعلق قبائلی علاقوں سے ہے جن میں زیادہ تر کرم ایجنسی اور شمالی اور جنوبی وزیرستان سے تعلق رکھتے ہیں۔
سرحد ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے ڈاکٹر بلال کا کہنا ہے کہ قبائلی علاقوں میں اس وقت ایڈز کے حوالے سے صورتحال اس لیے تشویشناک ہے کہ وہاں پر ایچ آئی وی ایڈز سے بچاؤ، آکاہی اور علاج کیلئے جامع اور سنجیدہ بنیادوں پر کوئی کام نہیں ہوا ہے۔
ان کے بقول اگر مزید غفلت برتی گئی تو مریضوں کی تعداد میں پانچ سے سات فیصد مزید اضافہ ہوسکتاہے۔ قبائلی علاقوں کے لوگ کافی تعداد میں محنت مزدوری کے لیے خلیجی ممالک بالخصوص ابوظہبی اور دبئی جاتے ہیں اور ڈاکٹر بلال احمد کے مطابق وقت کے ساتھ ساتھ جنسی سرگرمیوں میں ملوث ہو کر ایچ آئی وی ایڈز میں مبتلا ہوجاتے ہیں۔
ڈاکٹر بلال کے مطابق وہاں کے حکام خون کی سالانہ تشخیص کے بعد انہیں ایچ آئی وی پازیٹیو پاکر پاکستان واپس بیج دیتے ہیں۔ پاکستان واپس آ کر سماجی دباؤ کے تحت یہ لوگ کسی کو کچھ نہیں بتاتے اور ایچ آئی وی وائرس اپنے بچوں کو منتقل کردیتے ہیں۔
سرحد ایڈز پروگرام کی ڈپٹی ڈائریکٹر ڈاکٹر نسرین کا کہنا ہے کہ قبائلی علاقوں کے خاندان کے خاندان ایچ آئی وی ایڈز میں مبتلا ہیں لیکن خوف کی وجہ سے کوئی بھی سامنے نہیں آرہا ہے۔
اس بات کی تائید کوہاٹ میں غیر حکومتی ادارے پاکستان دیہی ترقیاتی پروگرام کی ایڈز پروجیکٹ کی انچارج غزالہ بھی کرتی ہیں۔مس غزالہ کے بقول سماجی دباؤ اور قدامت پرستی کے معاشرتی رجحانات کیوجہ سے ایڈز کے مریض سخت ذہنی دباو کا شکار ہیں۔
انھوں نے ایک خاتون کے حوالے سے بتایا کہ اس کے گھر والے اس سے ہاتھ نہیں ملاتے اور اسے باورچی خانے میں جانے سے روکتے ہیں۔
یہ صرف اس خاتون کی کہانی نہیں جس کا ذکر مس غزالہ کرتی ہیں بلکہ وقعت شاہ بھی اس قسم کا گلہ کرتے ہوے نظر آئے اور کہا کہ گاؤں کے لوگ ان سے ملنے سے گریز کرتے ہیں اور انکو گناہگار کہتے رہتے ہیں۔
گرچہ قبائلی علاقوں کیلئے حکومت نے ایڈز کنٹرول کا ادارہ بنایا ہے مگر اسکی فعالیت نہ ہونے کے برابر ہے۔سماجی دباؤ کے علاوہ مریضوں کو علاج کیلۓ دوائی تو دور کی بات ہے تشخیص کیلۓ ایجنسی کےسطح پر بھی کوئی انتظامات نہیں کۓ گۓ ہیں۔
ڈاکٹر افتخار علی فاٹا ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے سربراہ ہیں اور انکا کہنا ہے کہ حکومت کیلۓ وہاں کام کرنا اس لیۓ مشکل ہے کہ سیکس اور کنڈوم اور دیگر جنسی اصطلاحات پر کھل کر بات نہیں کی جاسکتی۔
انکے بقول حکومت مستقبل قریب میں ایڈز کے بچاؤ کے حوالے سے آگاہی مہم شروع کررہی ہے جسمیں علماء اور قبائلی عمائدین شامل کیۓ جائیں گے۔انکے بقول خلیجی ممالک سے آنے والے افراد کیلۓ خون کی تشخیص لازمی بنانے پر بھی بہت جلد عملدرآمد کیا جائیگا۔
دیکھا جاۓ تو اس وقت فاٹا ایڈو کنٹرول پروگرام اور سرحد ایڈز کنٹرول پروگرام کے علاوہ بہت سی غیر حکومتی ادارے ایڈز سے بچاؤ کیلۓ کام کرنے میں مصروف ہیں جنکے اہلکاروں کی تعداد صوبہ اور قبائلی علاقوں کے ایچ ائی وي ایڈز میں مبتلا چارسو ساٹھ مریضوں سے زیادہ ہے۔
لیکن پھر بھی ایڈز کے بارے میں آ گاہی کے پروگرام اور علاج کا بندوبست مؤثر نہیں ہے اور ایچ ائي وی ایڈز کی ادویات اسلام آباد تک پہنچنے کے باوجود ضرورت مندوں تک تاحال نہیں پہنچ سکی ہیں
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2005/12/051130_aids_fata_rza.shtml
shafiqueahmed110.com - کرم ایجنسی اور فاٹا میں ایڈز کی صورت حال Silence on HIV/AIDS Since 199
