National action plan on AIDS to be announced soon: Mirza

ISLAMABAD, Dec 02 (APP):Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza on Monday said that the government has decided to prepare national action plan to manage the menace of AIDS in the country.

Addressing the participants of AIDS awareness walk organized by World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Zafar Mirza said that the action plan will be announced soon which is being prepared in coordination with the provinces to have control on the disease.

He said that the government is fully committed to address the disease and in this regard several steps have been taken including complete ban on use of syringes.

He said that efforts are being made to stop spread of the disease through blood transfusion which is only possible by implementing the policy of blood screening.

He said that the government has prepared strategy to avoid medical complications from use of injections and added that a task force on Injection Safety has been working effectively on the project.

He added the task force in coordination with Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) will introduce code of ethics for safe injection. He added the main cause behind the spread of AIDS in District Larkana was utilizing used syringes.

Dr Mirza said that from the next year only auto destruct syringes will be used in the country. He added only one-time self-destruct syringes will be allowed in the country.

He said that the government has started working on these syringes with an objective to completely eradicate the culture of reuse of present ordinary syringes. He advised that people should adopt preventive measures to protect from carrying HIV/AIDS.