People ask me: DO you believe UNAIDS data saying that less than 0.1 % of adults in Pakistan are HIV infected? YES I DO, the estimate is not based on reporting but on surveys. The uncertainty is wide, yet all surveys indicate that only a fraction of one percent of adults live with HIV in Pakistan. See Gapminder World www.bit.ly/mSuVw6
Next question is: SO because it is a Muslim country you don´t think there are sex workers in Pakistan ? Now I can answer because I read a new excellent thesis; “Poverty of Opportunity for Women Selling Sex in Lahore, Pakistan”, by Mohsin Saeed Khan. He concludes that a substantial number of women do sell sex in Pakistan. Through respectful interviews and yet with the highest scientific rigor Dr Khan reveals an emerging pattern with several different ways in which sex is sold. Ranging from brothels to selling in your own home. All for the same sad reasons as in other parts of the world. Khan surprisingly finds that most of the women selling sex in Lahore are married. He explains how (1) an increasing and by now relatively high condom use and (2) a relatively low number of returning clients have limited the spread of HIV. This thesis shows how HIV prevention and empowerment of poor women needs to be based on different types of local realities that can be studied and understood anywhere in the world. http://publications.ki.se/jspui/handle/10616/40537
Hans Rosling