Curing or causing? HIV/AIDS in health care system of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Background Pakistan’s National AIDS Control Program has registered 44,000 HIV/AIDS patients to date, but the actual number of cases have been estimated to be as high as 150,000–170,000. The health care system has a very important role to play in this equation and must be reformed to improve the health care services in Pakistan, with regards to HIV/AIDS. Methods It was a qualitative research employing a phenomenological approach. The principal researcher visited nine public and private health care facilities and conducted 19 key informant interviews with people working for providing preventive and curative services, in addition to the observations made on the site. Results Pakistan’s health system has a limited capacity to address the HIV spread in the country, with its current resources. There is an obvious scarcity of resources at the preventive, diagnostic and curative level. However, menace can be curtailed through measures taken at the service delivery level by checking the unsafe needles practices, unclean surgical procedures and an unregulated and untrained private health workforce which are dangerous potentials routes of transmission of the virus to the general population. Healthcare establishments carry the chances of nosocomial infections including HIV/AIDS. Poverty, illiteracy and stigma associated with the disease is compounding the overall situation. Conclusion Improved accessibility to service delivery with a greater focus on prevention would be imperative to address the threat of HIV/AIDS in Pakistan. A health systems approach would help in identifying gaps at both strategic and operational levels, and concurrently find and implement solutions.

Stigma, Social Support, Illicit Drug Use, and Other Predictors of Anxiety and Depression Among HIV/AIDS Patients in Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Although resources have been stepped up in Pakistan for the last 5 years in response to HIV, little policy attention has been paid to the needs of PLWHA in mental health (61,62). A challenge for this resource-restricted nation is to create structures, skilled staff, and resources to enhance mental health services in general and, in particular, to meet the needs of people living with HIV (63,64). Our findings support the need for more research into HIV-psychological manifestations and identify those who are most vulnerable and develop interventions to reduce the individual and social factors that exacerbate vulnerability to depression and anxiety.…”

Review of hospital plastic waste management strategies for Pakistan

“…Pakistan is among the developing Asian countries where inadequate infrastructural arrangements and mishandling of hospital waste are reported frequently (Abdullah et al 2021 ; Ahmed Bin Hassan and Mubashar Hassan Zia 2020 ; Arub et al 3 ; Ayub et al 2019 ; Khan et al 2020 ; Naz et al 2020 ). In opposition to the guidelines and rules laid down by WHO and the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) of Pakistan, unsafe and illegal disposal of hospital waste is reported in electronic and press media.…”

Healthcare Professionals’ Practice of HIV Post-Exposure Prophylaxis in Clinical Settings in Karachi, Pakistan

“…By 18 May 2019, health officials had discovered 571 (3.4 percent) new instances of HIV infection among 16,856 people tested, 463 (81 percent) of which were in children and adolescents aged 15 years, including 355 (62 percent) in children under 5 years [ 4 ]. Because of insufficient information flow and scarce diagnostic facilities, estimates of PLHIV are substantially higher than the actual number of recorded cases [ 5 ]. The preliminary investigations (including patient interviews, site visits to clinics, hospitals and blood banks and a review of surveillance data) identified unsafe injection practices at health care facilities, unsafe practices at blood banks, inadequate infection control measures and improper medical waste management as the possible risk factors.…”

“…The SACP advised that infection prevention and control, as well as blood safety, need to be improved by training health care personnel in terms of safe injection techniques, forming task groups with key stakeholders and implementing policy reforms and laws [ 4 ]. In a society with a low literacy rate, where many health views are driven by myths and fallacies and with a poorly underutilized public health system, illnesses such as HIV take on a much larger magnitude due to financial, social and political obstacles [ 5 ].…”

“…As they have a forefront role in patientcare, they are in direct interaction with patients and their bodily fluids and blood and they are at a greater possibility of occupational exposure to HIV/AIDS and other infections. The WHO indicated that over 3 million percutaneous occupational injuries take place every year among HCPs all over the world [ 5 ]. The chances of contracting HIV by percutaneous contact with HIV-infected blood and mucous membrane contact were estimated to be around 0.3% and 0.09%, respectively [ 6 ].…”