Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Dr. Muhammad Akhtar Malik on Tuesday said that media could play an important role in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
He said that it was the national responsibility of media to promote awareness about HIV/AIDS and inform people about the facts of this epidemic and how to prevent it.
The Minister said this while addressing an interactive training workshop on ‘role of media in HIV and AIDS response’ organised with the joint support of Department of Primary and Secondary Health Care and Punjab AIDS Control Program and UNAIDS here.
Dr. Akhtar Malik said that news reporting on HIV was highly sensitive and responsible duty.
The privacy of information of people living with HIV was kept highly confidential, he added. He said that in Pakistan, HIV disease was more prevalent in high-risk groups than in the general population.
He said that truck drivers, bus drivers and prison inmates were also factors in the spread of HIV disease.
He said that 21 lakh people had been screened for HIV and 37 thousand people were registered as HIV positive. As many as 17,750 people had been treated with free medicines, he said.
