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Life – Under the Microscope

Monthly Archives: November 2011

AIDS in Pakistan – Let’s Face the Reality

AIDS is taboo in Pakistan. Every time the topic comes up, the general attitude is one of denial. People say that AIDS does not exist in Pakistan. How could it! This is an Islamic country, and the ‘illegal, immoral’ activities generally associated with HIV/AIDS are just not a part of our social fabric.

 

According to the National AIDS Control Program, about 100,000 Pakistanis are living with AIDS.  This number is most likely an under-estimate as most patients with HIV don’t even know they are infected. One is compelled to wonder where all these cases are coming from.

 

Like many other countries, the most important reason for the spread of HIV in Pakistan is sexual promiscuity. We may not like to admit this, but prostitution has been a part of our society for a long time. The ‘diamond market’ in Lahore was a thriving enterprise long before the Badshahi Masjid was built.  In addition, a growing number of young adults are engaging in sexual activity before marriage. Don’t believe me? Just visit my office the next time I have an unmarried teenager in my office waiting anxiously for a pregnancy test result.

 

There are of course several other reasons for the spread of HIV. Pakistan has a major IV drug abuse problem. By some estimates more than a million Pakistanis are addicted to drugs. These people often do drugs in the company of their peers, and they are very likely to share needles. Injecting drugs into your veins is bad enough; worse yet to do so with a previously used needle.

 

Another important and under-recognized manner for the spread of HIV is through transfusion of infected blood. While the screening of blood donors for HIV has been mandatory for several years, many health care facilities still use outdated disk methods to test for HIV and Hepatitis. These methods have high false negative rates. Consequently HIV positive blood donors are often not detected in time, and an unsuspecting patient gets HIV through no fault of his own. These are some of the saddest cases of HIV, but sadder still are the babies who are born with HIV because their mothers have the disease.

 

In the end it doesn’t matter much how a patient got infected. What is more important is what to do about it. We must educate patients and the general public about HIV and AIDS, about how this disease spreads, and also how it doesn’t spread. The last thing an HIV patient needs is to be treated like toxic waste; shaking hands with a patient will not kill you. World AIDS Day is a great opportunity to talk about this illness, read about it and discuss it with friends and family. A hundred thousand patients is a small number in a country of many millions. But this number will continue to rise unchecked unless we do away with our collective hang-ups and start talking about it.

The Taj Mahal and Harvard University

The year was 1631. The Mughal Empire of India was at the height of its glory.   The emperor Shah Jahan was grief stricken at the passing of Mumtaz Mahal, his beloved (3rd) wife, who had recently died during the birth of their (14th) child. To honor the memory of his loving wife, Shah Jahan ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal. The Emperor insisted that no expense be spared. It took more than 20 years and the efforts of thousands of craftsmen, but when all was said and done, Shah Jahan had created one of the seven wonders of the modern world. The Taj Mahal is a recognized the world over for its beauty and grace. It is one of a kind, and a reminder that the Emperor must have indeed loved his wife very much.

 

Around the same time as the beginning of work on the Taj Mahal, a college was being set up in New England. The initial purpose of this college was to train clergy for the newly discovered America. In 1638, a young minister named John Harvard left this budding college half his estate and his entire library . That small college went on to become Harvard University.

 

Some might say that there is no need to compare the Taj Mahal and Harvard University. They are both special. I agree. I would even go so far as to say that the Taj Mahal is unmatched in its beauty. But that is precisely my point. While the Taj Mahal is an excellent reminder of past glory, it is entirely useless to our present or future. It attests to the might and grandeur of a once powerful dynasty, but it is nothing more than a symbol of a long lost past.

 

Harvard University, on the other hand, is alive and well. What started as an act of generosity has become one of the oldest and most prestigious institutes of higher learning in the world. The university has more than 20,000 students, and it produces more than 500 PhD’s every year. Students from Harvard go on to assume positions of leadership and responsibility all over the world.Many Presidents, Prime Ministers, Justices and Nobel Prize winners can trace their roots to Harvard. 375 years after the selfless will of a common man, this university continues to be the cradle from which new generations of global leaders emerge.

 

I have not visited the Taj Mahal, and I am sure that if I ever do, I will walk away from it completely overwhelmed by it’s beauty and grace. I will admire it for it’s sheer size and majesty. But I will walk away nevertheless, and the Taj Mahal, for all of its grace, will remain but a monument to a glorious past.

 

I wish Shah Jahan had built a university to honor his wife.