SASNET seminar with Mohsin Saeed Khan on Pakistan’s HIV Epidemic

Dr. Mohsin Saeed Khan from Lahore, Pakistan, held a SASNET lecture on ”Selling sex without HIV – Pakistan’s HIV Epidemic” on Monday 6 February 2012, 13.15–15.00. The seminar was organised in collaboration with the Division of Social Medicine and Global Health, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University in Malmö. Venue: Auditorium, Clinical Research Centre (CRC), Skåne University Hospital in Malmö (SUS Malmö). On photo along with Lars Eklund, SASNET, and Professor P-O Östergren, Head of Division of Social Medicine and Global Health.
Dr. Khan defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Poverty of Opportunity for Women Selling Sex in Lahore, Pakistan: Knowledge, Experiences and Magnitude of HIV and STIs” in 2011 at the Division of Global health (IHCAR), Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm. More information.
In the seminar, Dr. Khan pointed out that the national prevalence of HIV in Pakistan is less than 1%. The HIV epidemic is concentrated among Injecting Drug Users (37%), and Hijras (Transvestities – 7.3%), meaning that the epidemic is concentrated among males. Has Pakistan been able to avert a heterosexual HIV epidemic? Is it a game of demand and supply or typologies of most at risk populations? The government of Pakistan has not financed the HIV programme since 2010. The contributions by global financing institutions have also decreased. Only 10% of the health care providers know how to correctly diagnose and treat STIs including Gonorrhoea and Syphilis. The hidden face of risky behaviours, denial, financial instability, global politics and security – have they contributed to the HIV epidemic in Pakistan. See the conference poster.
The audience consisted to a large extent of students and teachers from the Master's Programme in Public Health (MPH), run at the Division of Social Medicine and Global Health. This programme partly focuses on South Asia, and many of the students are from that area (Pakistani second-year students, Muhammad Ahsin, and Hafiz M Tayyab on photo to the left).

During his visit to Lund University, Dr. Khan also visited SASNET’s office in Lund, since he has had a special relation to SASNET. Till 2010, he was associated with SASNET as a member of its advisory South Asian Reference Group (more information).