PESHAWAR, June 19: The NWFP government is to organize at least 10 workshops for HIV/AIDS awareness for the Pakistanis living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an official said. “Pakistanis, especially those belonging to the labour class of the NWFP and Fata, contract the HIV infection in the UAE. They face deportation when, during their visit to the embassy in connection with the renewal of their documents, they are tested HIV-positive,” the official said.

Being away from their wives, these labourers come in contact with professional sex workers which results in the transmission of HIV/Aids, he said.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the officials in the UAE do not inform the Pakistan government about the deportation of such persons. As a result, they transmit the pandemic to their wives and children upon their return home, he added.

Moreover, those who are deported are often not told that they had contracted the deadly disease, he said.

According to him, if awareness is created about the ailment among the UAE-based Pakistanis they would at least take precautionary measures and would not transmit the disease to their wives.

“Not only this, they would take extreme caution when indulging in sex in the UAE,” he added.

It may be mentioned that a majority of HIV/Aids cases detected in the southern NWFP and Fata have been found among people who had returned from the UAE. The ailment is popularly known as the “Dubai Syndrome”.

The official said that several interventions in the past had proved a complete failure and “it was time we employed new strategies” to cope with the situation.

He said top priority should be accorded to preventive methods to check the ailment’s spread.

The provincial AIDS Control Programme, in collaboration with the WHO, had organized workshops for media people, health staff and NGO workers and soon similar workshops would be arranged for parliamentarians, police, railways staff and ulema.

He praised the WHO for providing support in technical training of NGO workers about the Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) such as HIV/Aids and Hepatitis. The health staff, he added, had also been trained in monitoring the field staff.

The official said that health staff would monitor NGOs working in the community while police, media people and local government staff would keep a check on the health staff. Through this multi-pronged system it would be determined whether the end-users had received the information about the STIs or not. Further measures would be taken if it was felt the system needed improvement.

Since there was no NGO in the tribal areas working on this sensitive issue except in the Kurram Agency, “we have recommended to the health department, Fata, to spread awareness through community organizations and ulema”, he added.

He said that technical training had so far been given to 60 workers of NGOs. He added that NGOs would be selected on merit after completing all formalities to work among drug addicts, jail inmates and other high-risk groups.