STIs and HIV in Pakistan: from analysis to action

A group of researchers and practitioners sought to understand the drivers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, in Pakistan. The results of the research suggest three central messages:

• A window—which is likely closing—exists to prevent a more widespread HIV epidemic in the country.
• The need for massively scaled-up interventions is pressing: awareness and knowledge are low, measures to reduce risk are low and levels of vulnerability are high. 
• Efforts to ramp up service delivery will need to be matched by deliberate yet ingenious and sensitive work from civil society. Such work will need to confront the social and cultural factors which are at the root of many of the vulnerabilities which will fuel a potential epidemic—from the position of women to the values which drive homosexuality underground to the regulations concerning human rights and the manner in which they are enforced.

This article is the introduction to a special issue of the journal dedicated to this research programme.