Commentary

HIV/AIDS in Pakistan: the battle begins

Mohammad A Rai¹ , Haider J Warraich¹ , Syed H Ali¹ and Vivek R Nerurkar²

¹  Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

²  Retrovirology Research Laboratory, Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

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Retrovirology 2007, 4:22doi:10.1186/1742-4690-4-22

Published:	21 March 2007

Abstract

Pakistan, the second most populous Muslim nation in the world, has started to finally experience and confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The country had been relatively safe from any indigenous HIV cases for around two decades, with most of the infections being attributable to deported HIV positive migrants from the Gulf States. However, the virus finally seems to have found a home-base, as evidenced by the recent HIV outbreaks among the injection drug user community. Extremely high-risk behavior has also been documented among Hijras (sex workers) and long-distance truck drivers. The weak government response coupled with the extremely distressing social demographics of this South-Asian republic also helps to compound the problem. The time is ripe now to prepare in advance, to take the appropriate measures to curtail further spread of the disease. If this opportunity is not utilized right now, little if at all could be done later.