AMC organizes Stop Aids Keep the Promise seminar
By Saad Saud

RAWALPINDI—In the reference with World AIDS Day, Army Medical College organized a seminar under the theme of “Stop AIDS - Keep the Promise” on Friday 2006. Major General Muhammad Aslam, was the chiefguest on the occasion, who heads the Faculty of Medicine of the College under the designation Dean.
Aiming to generate a basic awareness among the youth, informative lectures were delivered on various aspects of the disease by guest speakers, whoare considered experts on their respective fields . Among the guest speakers, Major General Ejaz Ghauri spoke on “HIV - Blood Transfusion and Spread of AIDS”. “HIV Women and Children” was the theme of thelecture delivered by Dr Azhar Batool, whereas Brigadier Jawad Khaliq Ansari delivered lecture on the topic “The Management of HIV/AIDS”.
Brigadier Waheed Uz Zaman while delivering the lecture on “SuccessfulPre-emptive Efforts to Control HIV Epidemic in Pak Armed Forces”highlighted the role which Pakistan Armed Forces are performing in orderto curtail the spread of this disease. An other informative lecturedelivered by Brigadier Moadid Rana, in which he spoke on
“Aids Stigma and Discrimination”, he said that considering AIDS as ataboo is a big hurdle in the way of dealing with this disease _ andsuggested that it should be dealt with full acceptance of the issue.“Aids Epidemic: What Needs to be done” was the theme of another lecturedelivered by Brigadier Maqsood.
At the end of the ceremony, the chief guest distributed prizes among thewinners of the poetry and essay contests , held among the students ofthe college earlier. Basim Ansari won the first prize in easycompetition, whereas best in English and Urdu poetry was given to Sadaqat Ali and Zeb Malik respectively. Excerpts from the wining essays and poetry were also presented during the seminar by the winning students.
AIDS first discovered in 1981 and 2.9 million deaths have been occurredsince then. So far Pakistan is among “Low Prevalence high riskcountries” having 70000 to 80000 AIDS victims at the moment. It isincredible disease and only prevention is the only treatment, therefore,it is strongly required that general awareness should be generated among the public, in different feasible ways such as an effective media campaign and frequent public seminars.
The seminar was concluded by the brief but comprehensive remarks by the chief guest, wherein he alongwith the young students firmly pledged to “Keep the Promise by Stopping AIDS or HIV”.