'150,000 people fall prey to AIDS yearly in Pakistan'

ISLAMABAD: As many as 150,000 people fall prey to AIDS yearly in Pakistan, said Federal Health Minister Aamer Mehmood Kiani, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Addressing in a ceremony held here today, to mark International AIDS Day, aimed to create awareness about this deadly disease of AIDS, the minister said 33 centres are working to control over HIV / AIDS.

“Efforts are  being geared up to control over increasing disease of AIDS countrywide”, the minister maintained.

Back in the month of October, the Attorney General Office submitted its report in the Supreme Court, proposes that at least 132,000 populace in Pakistan is suffering with AIDS.

The report was arranged for a suo motu case on high rates of HIV/AIDS in Jalalpur Jattan.

According to this report, almost 130 citizens in Jalalpur Jattan are victim of HIV/AIDS.

The report also states that around 60,000 people from Punjab, 52,000 from Sindh,  and 17,000 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad are sufferer of AIDS.

This whole data was collected from newspapers.

According to a United Nations report, a girl between the age of 15 and 19 is contaminated with the virus that is the outcome of HIV/ AIDS in every three minutes.

In 2017, the girls and young women make up to almost two-thirds of 15 to 19 year age bracket tainted with HIV/ AIDS,  as per statistics exposed at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.

Preceding year, 130,000 youngsters under age bracket of 19 died from HIV/ AIDS, while almost 430,000 people at every 50th hour were newly infected, the agency informed.

The data revealed that death due to HIV/ AIDS have lessen since 2010, in all supplementary age groups, but the age group from 15 to 19 have stayed invariable.

Almost 1.2 million of age 15 to 19 years old were alive with the immune system-destroying virus in 2017. The statistics are three in five of the girls, as per UNICEF.