ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel has called for eliminating social stigmas associated with AIDS disease to ensure proper treatment and rehabilitation of its patients.

He was addressing a ceremony organized here in Islamabad on Thursday to mark the World AIDS Day. The Minister said it is the fear of social seclusion and behaviors that people hesitate in getting checked for the disease and thus it remains untreated.

He emphasized the need for maximum awareness in this regard that AIDS is not a contagious disease and AIDS patients need care like patents of any other disease and should not be discriminated against or hated.