Pakistani immigrants returning from Gulf countries have been identified as the single largest group in the country infected with HIV/AIDS, according to Dr Sharaf Ali Shah, programme manager of the Enhanced Sindh AIDS Control Programme, and Dr Abdul Mujeeb, in charge of the Blood Bank and AIDS Surveillance Centre, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center.

Briefing journalists on the eve of the World's AIDS Day (Dec 1), Dr Mujeeb said HIV/AIDS destroys the immune system of a person and he or she easily becomes a prey of tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhoea and other diseases. He said the HIV/AIDS virus cannot be detected until the twelve-week mark and anti-retroviral therapy can then be used to boost a person's defence mechanism. He said the United Nations Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria had provided $11 million to Pakistan to fight the menace.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sharaf Ali Shah said the number of people living with HIV/AIDS across the world was over 40 million whereas the number of newly infected persons was five million, including 700,000 children. He said as many as three million people world wide died of HIV/AIDS in 2003. Referring to the regional scenario, he said the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Asia- Pacific was 7.4 million whereas the number of newly infected persons in this region was one million. He said about 500,000 people died of HIV/AIDS in Asia-Pacific in 2003. He said there were 4.5 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS in India.

Comparatively, 2,020 cases of HIV/AIDS have been confirmed in Pakistan. A break-up shows that there were 378 cases of HIV/AIDS in federal centres, 441 in Punjab, 582 in Sindh, 405 in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 192 in Balochistan and 22 in Azad Jammu & Kashmir. He said out of the total cases in Pakistan, 1,785 are HIV positive and 235 have AIDS.

He said in Sindh, between 1986 until now, as many as 659 cases of HIV were reported. Among them 88.8 per cent were males and 11.2 per cent females. In 2003 alone, 86 cases of HIV were reported in Sindh out of which 96.5 per cent were males and 3.5 per cent females, he added. He said the mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS in the year was sexual (64 cases), and injecting drug users (22 cases). He said screening done among jail inmates during June-December 2003 showed that out of tests of 5,590 prisoners, 23 were reported with HIV positive.