Pakistan, May 13 -- Pakistan is once again forced to confront a public health story it has long managed to ignore. Last week, a parliamentary committee was apprised of how nearly 20,000 people who had begun antiretroviral therapy at government clinics have disappeared from follow-up registries. The gulf between the data and reality is shocking on its own, with new infections said to have climbed 200 per cent in fifteen years. What makes the picture grimmer is that only 16 per cent of those infected are receiving treatment, and a mere seven per cent have suppressed viral loads.

The government's response, announced with much fanfare, is to screen every deported passenger at airports. A high-level task force has also proposed regular inspec...