Staff Reporter :
On account of lack of awareness, the number of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infected patients are increasing alarmingly in the country especially in Cox’sbazar areas.
Bangladesh has, so far, around 14,000 patients of AIDS, the most advanced stage of HIV infection, experts said adding that though the number is low, the country is at high risk because of neighbouring India and Myanmar which have higher transmission rates.
According to the latest statistics, a large portion of the total AIDS patients in Bangladesh are Rohingya population.
The infection is spreading to local community in Cox’s Bazar and a total of 11 cases were identified in last June. The authorities have reported 710 people infected with HIV since 2015, of which 612 are Rohingya people of the district.
Residential Surgeon of Cox’sbazar Sadar Hospital Dr Ashikur Rahman said some 118 have died out of 710 patients.
According to Dr Rahman, some 710 patients infected with HIV received treatment in Cox’sbazar since 2015. Of which, 505 patients received treatment from Cox’sbazar Sadar Hospital and 205 from Ukhia Hospital. Among the patients, 612 were Rohingya and 98 local people, he added.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), around 28.05 percent of women are not informed about AIDS, but 71.05 percent are aware of at least one carrier of the disease.
The awareness rate among the women about all the spreaders rose to 36 percent, 7 percent more than that of 2016.
The government agency thinks the risk of AIDS transmission among women is rising as the awareness did not grow at the desired level.
The data provided by the National AIDS/STD Control (NASC) Programme of the Directorate General of Health Services said a total of 12,91,069 samples were tested from November 2020 to November 2021 to detect HIV/AIDS. The same was around 13,32,589 in the previous year.
Out of the newly 729 HIV-infected people in last year, men were 420, women 210, transgenders 12. Of them, Rohingya refugees were 188, common people 186 (26 percent), migrants and their families 144 (20 percent), people who take drugs through injection 61 (8 percent), female sex workers 17 (2 percent), homosexuals 67 (9 percent), male sex workers 53 (7 percent) and transgenders 12 (2 percent), the data showed.
Virologist Dr Zahidur Rahman of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital told The New Nation that Bangladesh is a country of low prevalence in case of HIV infection.
“But it is at risk for various reasons. We have borders with two countries (India and Myanmar). Both are at high risk. There are also a few lakh Rohingyas in the country,” he said.
Mentioning people coming to Bangladesh from the two neighbouring countries, he said it is urgent to launch HIV screening tests at air, sea and land ports.
“This test will not cost much, and it may take 10 minutes to conduct the same by kit. The United Nations have huge idle money which we can use for HIV screening,” he added.
He further said, “AIDS spread through infected person’s blood, and unsafe sexual intercourse, as well as transmitted to child from affected mother. It is urgent to take steps to contain HIV infection.”
According to health experts, the government has to take more initiatives and plans to combat against the deadly virus. They feel need to increase identification test and coverage to detect the people who bear the virus.
Particularly, more attention needs to be paid to Rohingya people, migrants, people who have been pushed back and AIDS-prone areas. They also opined to bring everyone under the HIV test in border areas as like the coronavirus.
According to UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Bangladesh has so far registered more than 14,000 AIDS infected patients which is 0.1 percent of the total population. However, only 8,000 patients are currently under the treatment. Till November 30, 2021, Bangladesh logged a total of 1,588 people who died of AIDS. Since then, no record has been found in this connection.
