Last week the world observed AIDS Day. Nations all over the globe reaffirmed their resolve to fight an affliction that has destroyed millions of lives since it broke out in the mid seventies. Its impact has been as devastating in Africa as in Europe or in the Americas. For the countries of Asia, this day has a particular relevance.
In the next decade this part of the world will replace Africa as the worst-affected by Aids. South-East Asia -- Thailand and Bangkok -- and South Asia -- India and China -- are the next centuries' AIDS centers. India has the makings of the century's biggest AIDS disaster, and the Chinese have begun to admit that the AIDS situation is far worse than what has been officially claimed so far.
Pakistan is placed at the crossroads of all these sub-parts of Asia and cannot afford to pretend that the growth of this deadly virus in its neighbourhood has no effect on its population. Viruses travel fast and do not need entry visas. They look for enabling environments to make permanent abodes. They thrive on absence of basic health facilities (infected syringes and unscreened blood), excess of drug addicts (shared needles), and lack of education (non-use of contraceptives and ignorance about sexual contact). All these factors are present in Inda-Pakistan and have the makings of a dangerous cocktail. This is how the HIV virus has brought ruin and death upon generations, the present and the future: According to one estimate by the end of this year one million children will be infected with HIV; out of the one and half million AIDS-related deaths, 350,000 would have been under 15.
We have to make use of these valuable facts and draw up plans to ensure that our children and population are saved from this curse of modern times. Taboos that prevent free discussion on AIDS in families and in the national media have to be broken to build dykes against the flood of AIDS that has inundated the neighbouring countries. The economically vulnerable groups of society are also the most insecure against AIDS attack. They need special protection. (In India AIDS patients are concentrated essentially in shanty towns and slums where the country's wretched live by birth.) They need money and support from government and voluntary organisations working in the health sector. Their fate, and that of other potential targets of AIDS, depends on what is planned for them today by policy makers.
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