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tag: female,
male, commercial, floating, street, sex workers, aids, hiv, csws, idus, fsws,
girls, women, consensual, premarital, exmarital, sexuality, empowerment,
gender, education, prevention, dhaka, india, pakistan, bangladesh,
adolescent, teen, teenage, truck drivers. trafficking, epidemic, street
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abuse, forced sex, risky sexual behaviour, business, multi partner sex,
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men who have sex with men, msm, harassment, sugar daddies, relationships,
condom, polygamy, homosexuality, extra marital, relations, truckers, migrant
workers, gay, hijras, hermaphrodites, professional blood donors, heroin
smokers, hotel, brothel, street based commercial sex workers, casual sex
workers, so called sex workers, violence, exploitation, Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation, Mohammad Khairul Alam
Mohammad Khairul
Alam
Executive Director
Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation
24/3 M.C. Roy Lane
Dhaka-122
Bangladesh
rainbowngo@gmail.com
www.newsletter.com.bd
Tell: 880-2-8628908
Mobile: 01711344997
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AIDS
Run First in
Pakistan
In 1987,
Pakistan was reported
first HIV/AIDS case in Lahore. During the late 1980s and 1990s, it became
evident that an increasing number, mostly men, were becoming infected with
HIV while living or travelling abroad.
In
Pakistan, the
intravenous drug users (IDU) are the most potential carriers of HIV/AIDS
among the vulnerable groups in the country, high HIV infection levels among
groups of IDUs could cross over into other populations, including male and
female sex workers. In Larkana, 8% of injecting drug users were HIV-infected
in 2005, as were at least 6% in Faisalabad, Lahore, Sargodha and Sialkot,
where a majority of injecting drug users were either married or sexually
active. In Karachi, 26% of injecting drug users participating in a 2005
study were found to be HIV-infected. The majority of infected drug users had
one risk factor in common: they used non-sterile injecting equipment. Even
the most basic elements of effective harm reduction are lacking. Only one
half of the injecting drug users taking part in a study in Karachi and
Rawalpindi, for example, knew that HIV could be transmitted through using
unclean needles—and as many of them said they had used non-sterile injecting
equipment in the previous month.
Rainbow Nari O Shishu
Kallyan Foundation’s reveal extremely high levels of infections among
adolescent girls, which are higher than those for boys. This is mainly
because of the fact that at young age, boys have sex with girls of similar
age, while girls have relations with older men, who are more likely to be
infected. Sexual harassment of schoolgirls by older men sometime may be the
cause of HIV infection. Poverty also drives many adolescent girls to accept
relationships with ‘sugar daddies’ (older men who are prepared to give
money, goods or favors in return for sex).
The presence of
significant risk factors such as the very low use of condoms among
vulnerable populations including female sex workers, men who have sex with
men, as well as the low use of sterile syringes among injecting drug users.
In addition increased number of migrant workers, unsafe practice in health
service, unsafe sex practice etc. movement of population, less use of
condom, polygamy, homosexuality, extra-marital relations, further increases
the susceptibility.
Commercial female sex
workers don’t use condom regularly. Fewer than one in five female sex
workers—and one in 20 of their male counterparts—in
Karachi
and Rawalpindi said they had consistently used condoms during the previous
month. In an earlier study in Karachi, one in four sex workers could not
recognize a condom. In addition, a 2005 study has confirmed that HIV
transmission is occurring within the sexual networks of male and eunuch (hijra)
sex workers in
Karachi. The
study found 7% of the male sex workers and 2% of the hijras were
HIV-infected. In another study in Karachi, 4% of male sex workers and 2% of
hijras tested positive. Very high levels of other sexually transmitted
infections indicate widespread sexual risk-taking. In the latter study, 23%
of the male sex workers had syphilis and 36% had gonorrhoea, while among
the hijras, 62% had syphilis and 29% gonorrhoea. Indeed, only 4% of male sex
workers and less than 1% of the hijras said they used a condom the last time
they had sex with a man. Also of note is the finding that one in four of the
male sex workers said they also bought or sold sex to women. Such high-risk
behaviour must be addressed in order to limit the further spread of HIV in
and beyond those sexual networks.
There are several
social components link to develop this harmful situation, these reasons due
to increase HIV-AIDS in Pakistan, such as (i) lack of political will due to
lack of advocacy among the political leaders and the bureaucracy, (ii)
inadequate data due to limited surveillance (iii) lack of awareness in the
rural areas (iv) no clear policy on care and support of affected individuals
and the management of full blown cases and (v) no proper training for all
medical/paramedical faculties and the non medical field workers. The
majority of the program activities were concentrated in the urban areas.
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