Pakistan's first 'outed' HIV patient turns social activist

Thrown in jail, deported and ridiculed -- Nazir Masih's struggle as the first person in Pakistan to be publicly "outed" as
HIV positive has led him on an often arduous journey from outcast to activist.

The 52-year-old Masih's struggles have been doubly difficult in this overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 160 million people because he is part of the tiny Christian religious minority.

He has overcome these problems to help Pakistan's "hidden" HIV/AIDS sufferers who get little help from the government -- officially only 4,000 people here have the virus but UNAIDS says up to 80,000 are infected.
"When I was first diagnosed as HIV positive 17 years ago, I used to wish I was dead. I thought it would be better for me and my family than to suffer a life of stigma and ostracism," the diminutive Masih told AFP.

Masih was working as a helper for an Arab family in Abu Dhabi when a mandatory HIV test for renewing visas came back positive.

"Having spent years away from my wife, I did have sex with another woman. It was a mistake but the scale of the punishment was too severe for the act," he says when asked how he contracted HIV.

"I was thrown in jail and later deported to Pakistan," he said.

Back in his homeland, the nightmare continued. A quack doctor told him that his condition was the same as syphilis and took most of his money for useless treatment, forcing him to sell his house.

Lesions began to appear on his skin. And then, he says, local newspapers found out about his condition and turned his life into a circus.

Health officials alerted to the "threat" posed by Masih descended upon his house and told his wife to avoid all contact with him.

This was the first time someone with HIV/AIDS had been publicly outed in Pakistan, says Nasir Afraz, deputy programme manager at the government's National Aids Control Programme, although the first confirmed case here was in 1987.

"They really upset my family. My wife was told not to give me any food or even touch my clothes," said Masih. "They made a complete mockery of me."

-- Struggle to bring AIDS sufferers in from the cold --

By 1998 he said he was contemplating suicide when he was contacted by a Christian charity. Christians make up less than three percent of the overwhelmingly Muslim population.

With their help he set up an office in his bicycle shop and with a small team of workers he began an initiative to reach out to HIV sufferers and educate poor communities about the virus.

He had only five patients at first -- and not all of them welcomed his help.

"I have taken a lot of abuse from HIV patients. One man who was HIV positive got really angry and threatened me with a gun," he said.

In 2001, with the help of outside funding, Masih set up the New Light Aids Control Society in the eastern city of Lahore. Today it provides 124 people with free anti-retroviral therapy, counselling and financial aid.

Masih's dedication has also motivated others.

In 2003 Nawaz Ahmed was working as a mobile technician in Kuwait when tests proved he was HIV positive.

"Because of the stigma associated with HIV and Aids, I didn't tell people I was HIV positive but once I saw the work that Mr Nazir was doing it motivated me to act too. I started working at New Light in 2004," he said.

Masih says the official response to the growing HIV problem in Pakistan is inadequate.

"Our government has ignored the HIV problem rather than attack it," he said.

"They have testing facilities and they have been providing anti-retroviral therapy since 2005 -- two years after New Light -- but the government makes no effort to engage the population."

Bettina Schunter, an HIV and AIDS official for the
United Nations Children's Fund said the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Pakistan was likely to be 70,000-80,000, about 20 times more than the number actually diagnosed.

"We know the people are there, we just haven't officially found them yet," Schunter said.

But Afraz of the National Aids Control Programme denied that Pakistani authorities were not doing enough.

"We have nine treatment centres across the country, about 650 patients are registered with us. Right now we are in the process of scaling up treatment and services for HIV patients to meet deadlines by 2010," he said.