ISLAMABAD: The federal health minister in Pakistan, Mustafa Kamal, has claimed that night parties, rather than the reuse of syringes, are a major factor behind the spread of HIV in the federal capital, Islamabad.
While briefing the standing committee for Health, the federal health minister revealed that an assessment of HIV cases in Islamabad had found that over 30 new HIV cases are now being reported every month.
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Mustafa Kamal has said the newly identified HIV-positive individuals in the capital were not people who inject drugs using shared syringes.
Instead, he claimed that many of the new cases involved young men and women who attend night parties, adding that a number of people visiting such parties had tested with HIV positive.
The federal health minister said that the spread of the virus among young people is a growing public health challenge and emphasized that parents had a key responsibility to discourage their children from attending such parties and to monitor their activities.
Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Health expressed concern over the increasing number of HIV cases in Islamabad, the federal capital, and called for immediate measures to help contain the spread of the virus.