Alarming increase in reported HIV cases from Larkana, Pakistan: a matter of serious concern

Seven years ago in this journal's editorial of special supplement on hiv/aids research in 2006 vermund and colleagues expressed concern over the rising trend of hiv among injection drug users (idus). the editorial was titled, hiv/aids in pakistan: has the explosion begun? the last national surveillance round was conducted in 2011 and its results indicated a surge in hiv infection among idus and hijra sex workers. the national prevalence of hiv was 37.8% (95% ci: 37.3%, 38.3%) among idus and 7.2% (95% ci: 6.8%, 7.5%) among hijra sex workers.2 experts believe that the data and pattern of hiv epidemic in pakistan suggest that this country will not have a generalized epidemic like several countries in sub saharan africa however in the concentrated phase of the epidemic the trend will continue to rise among certain high risk groups.