By Asma Kundi
Life for a 34-year-old transgender Sana became tougher after “she” was diagnosis with HIV. However, with support from the health ministry and human rights activists, now “she” is not only successfully fighting the lethal disease but also working as an outreach counselor to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS.
She shared with World Echo that since childhood, she was fond of girlish attires, dance, jewelry and etc. Her family didn’t support her but her aunt who didn’t have her own child adopted her and supported her.
However, recalling her miseries she said, “When I was living in a joint family and was fully ignored by parents and brothers, other relatives took full advantage of the circumstances. They sexually abused me and threatened me not to share with anyone, otherwise, I will be thrown out of my house.”
She left her house after completing her matriculation due to domestic violence and abuse. She said she contacted another transgender in Lahore and said goodbye to her home and family.
She said initially she used to dance at different functions and also did sex work for her survival. “I don’t know, how I caught this disease because I was not aware of any precautionary measures for sex work. I never used drugs and I think that I got HIV during sex work,” Sana said.
She shared, “Life for any transgender in Pakistan is not easy but after getting HIV, it became more miserable. I used to get disappointed by the humiliating behaviour of people around me.
Luckily an NGO “Daricha” contacted me and with the help of the health ministry, I am getting free treatment and also got a job in the same NGO.”
Sana is now giving awareness to her community about HIV/AIDS and trying to save her fellows from the sufferings she had to faced.
Sana is registered with the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), one of the oldest treatment facilities in the country, for treatment of HIV.
It has been providing services to people living with HIV (PLHIV) across the country, especially those from the twin cities, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and even to some PLHIV from Sindh and Balochistan.
The center has seen a steady increase in the number of PLHIV getting life-saving anti-retroviral therapy: from 674 PLHIV on treatment in 2014 to 1,564 PLHIV in December 2021.
In the last 10 months (January to October 2022) 496 people have tested positive at PIMS of which 95% (473) are adults (15-49 years of age), and 4.9% (23) are children (0-14 years).
Of the total newly diagnosed PLHIV 17% (85) are young adults aged between 15-25 years of which 62% (53) are males, 21% (18) are transgenders and 17% (14) are females.
Among the newly diagnosed PLHIV 79% are people who inject drugs, 15% are transgenders, and 6% are men engaged in sex work.
During the same period, an average age of 49 individuals is diagnosed HIV positive at the center per month.
An official on condition of anonmity at the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) told World Echo that the increase in showing up of people for tests has largely been attributed to HIV awareness campaigns by NACP and its partners. Through these campaigns, community outreach services have been increased multifold and screened individuals have been linked to the ART facility for treatment, the official said.
“We are making sure of the sustained engagement of screened people with healthcare providers to destigmatize the disease and increased awareness about HIV prevention, treatment, pre-, and post-exposure prophylactic treatment services,” the official said.
“These increasing numbers are a source of encouragement for us as people earlier didn’t get themselves tested and were becoming the source of spreading the disease. Alarming numbers were there but not reported,” he explained.
Dr Naila Bashir in-charge of the HIV treatment center at PIMS said that around 4,500 people with HIV are registered with PIMS from across Pakistan. Anyhow, she denied that the majority of the registered patients are transgender or sex workers.
