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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JPSIM</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine</journal-title>
        <abbrev-title>J Pak Soc Intern Med</abbrev-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn publication-format="print">2709-8729</issn>
      <issn publication-format="electronic">2710-0804</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.70302/jpsim.v7i3.2635</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">jpsim.v7i3.2635</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Editorial</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Confronting the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—A Critical Public Health Challenge</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
          <name>
            <surname>Zeb</surname>
            <given-names>Salma</given-names>
          </name>
          <email>salmazeb044@gmail.com</email>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/>
          <xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1">*</xref>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <aff id="aff1">
        <institution>Department of Internal Medicine Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar</institution>
        <country>Pakistan</country>
      </aff>
      <author-notes>
        <corresp id="cor1">*Correspondence: Salma Zeb (salmazeb044@gmail.com)</corresp>
        <fn fn-type="conflict">
          <p>The authors declare no conflict of interest.</p>
        </fn>
      </author-notes>
      <pub-date date-type="pub" publication-format="electronic" iso-8601-date="2026-08-21">
        <day>21</day>
        <month>08</month>
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <pub-date date-type="collection" publication-format="electronic">
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>7</volume>
      <issue>3</issue>
      <fpage>180</fpage>
      <lpage>181</lpage>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received" iso-8601-date="2026-03-28">
          <day>28</day>
          <month>03</month>
          <year>2026</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="rev-recd" iso-8601-date="2026-05-15">
          <day>15</day>
          <month>05</month>
          <year>2026</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted" iso-8601-date="2026-08-12">
          <day>12</day>
          <month>08</month>
          <year>2026</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Copyright © 2026 The Author(s)</copyright-statement>
        <copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
        <copyright-holder>The Author(s)</copyright-holder>
        <ali:free_to_read xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"/>
        <license license-type="open-access" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
          <ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ali:license_ref>
          <license-p>This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <self-uri xlink:href="https://psimj.com/article/jpsim.v7i3.2635" content-type="text/html"/>
      <self-uri xlink:href="https://psimj.com/article/jpsim.v7i3.2635.pdf" content-type="application/pdf"/>
      <kwd-group xml:lang="en" kwd-group-type="author-keywords">
        <title>Keywords</title>
        <kwd>HIV</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
      <funding-group>
        <funding-statement>This research received no specific grant from any funding agency.</funding-statement>
      </funding-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <!-- <body> omitted: could not find an Introduction / Background / Case heading to start the main text -->
  <back>
    <notes notes-type="ethics-statement">
      <title>Ethics Statement</title>
      <p>not_applicable.</p>
    </notes>
    <ref-list>
      <title>References</title>
      <ref id="ref1">
        <label>1</label>
        <mixed-citation>UNAIDS. Global HIV &amp; AIDS statistics — Fact sheet. Geneva: UNAIDS. (Updated, 2022). Available from: [https://www.unaids.org]</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
      <ref id="ref2">
        <label>2</label>
        <mixed-citation>Pakistan National AIDS Control Program. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. Islamabad: National AIDS Control Program. (Updated, 2022). Available from: [http://www.nacp.gov.pk]</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
      <ref id="ref3">
        <label>3</label>
        <mixed-citation>World Health Organization. Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery, and monitoring: Recommendations for a public health approach. Geneva: World Health Organization. (Updated, 2021). Available from: [https://www.who.int]</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
      <ref id="ref4">
        <label>4</label>
        <mixed-citation>Khanani MR, Hafeez A, Rab SM. HIV/AIDS in Pakistan: The evolving epidemic and future challenges. Infect Dis Poverty. 2019;8(1), 16.</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
      <ref id="ref5">
        <label>5</label>
        <mixed-citation>Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Demographics and Health Survey. Islamabad: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. (Updated, 2020) Available from: [http://www.pbs.gov.pk]</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
      <ref id="ref6">
        <label>6</label>
        <mixed-citation>Hameed A, Malik S. HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in Pakistan: A systematic review. J Health Soc Sci. 2020;5(3), 397-407.</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
      <ref id="ref7">
        <label>7</label>
        <mixed-citation>United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). HIV prevention, treatment, and care for people who inject drugs. Vienna: UNODC. (Updated, 2022). Available from: [https://www.unodc.org]</mixed-citation>
      </ref>
    </ref-list>
  </back>
</article>
