Raza Hussain Ahmed, Raja Mohummad Hassan Raza, Khakwani Muhammad Mussab, Jamil Bushra
Department for Educational Development, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Medical College, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
IJID Reg. 2024 Apr 7;11:100364. doi: 10.1016/j.ijregi.2024.100364. eCollection 2024 Jun.
Pakistan has been a hub of several HIV outbreaks over the last 2 decades, with four major outbreaks being registered since 2018. There has been a recent rise in HIV infections, especially in high-risk populations, mainly consisting of people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, prisoners, the transgender women community, and female sex workers. Consistently poor infection control practices, unregulated unsafe blood transfusion, questionable ethical practices by healthcare providers, and a general lack of awareness are the main drivers of recent HIV outbreaks, with these issues exacerbated by the presence of untrained health care providers. To stop the spread of HIV systemically and sustainably, aggressive measures need to be taken at all levels by all concerned stakeholders that not only deal with building up testing, tracing, and treatment capabilities but also address underlying grassroots problems that have largely been ignored to date.
在过去20年里，巴基斯坦一直是几起艾滋病毒疫情的中心，自2018年以来已记录了四起主要疫情。最近艾滋病毒感染有所上升，特别是在高危人群中，主要包括注射毒品者、男男性行为者、囚犯、跨性别女性群体和女性性工作者。始终糟糕的感染控制措施、不受监管的不安全输血、医疗服务提供者有问题的道德行为以及普遍缺乏认识是近期艾滋病毒疫情的主要驱动因素，而未经培训的医疗服务提供者的存在使这些问题更加严重。为了全面、可持续地阻止艾滋病毒的传播，所有相关利益攸关方都需要在各级采取积极措施，这些措施不仅要建立检测、追踪和治疗能力，还要解决迄今为止基本被忽视的基层根本问题。
