ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

One of every 200 Bangladeshis will be HIV positive by 2000: experts

They all know about AIDS and safe sex. But ask them if their clients use condoms and the answer is a bewildered look and a whispery 'No'.

The sex workers of Narayonganj, near Bangladesh capital Dhaka, thus, are no different from their sisters in many parts of the world. Though at least six non-governmental organisations have been working for months in this port town, just 25 km from Dhaka, to promote safer sex behaviour, the results are less than tangible.

Social workers at CARE, one of the NGOs in the field, said their volunteers in Tangail district have been counselling both sex workers and clients. But only seven per cent of men agree to use the condoms that are distributed free.

''If we insist too much we stand to lose customers,'' shrugged a young woman in Tanbazar, one of the country's largest brothels which houses 2,000-odd prostitutes. "We understand the risk, but we cannot dictate things to our customers."

AIDS is spreading, but the prevalence rate in Bangladesh is much lower than the neighbouring India, which is believed to have the largest number of HIV-infected in the world. Only 83 people have tested HIV-positive in Bangladesh. In India, the figure was 56,409 people in May 1997.

However, Bangladesh health experts warn the actual number in the country is far higher than 83: nearly 20,000. And if unchecked, one in every 200 people (the population is 120 million) will be infected by the turn of the century, they claim.

Though Bangladesh is among the few countries which recognised the AIDS threat early, and established the National Aids Committee in 1985, it was only last year that a strategy was drafted.

The draft policy is now with the government, getting the final touch, and a national programme is expected to be implemented in July. It acknowledges the need to involve all sectors of the society to combat the menace and aims at, among other things, educating the public and enabling the HIV infected to live and die with dignity, without discrimination and stigma.

The programme would cost around $ 40 million, most of which would come from foreign donors. And for the implementation, the government has sought the help of NGOs.

''Bangladesh is at the crossroads,'' said Dr Nasiruddin of the Voluntary Health Services Society. ''If the country and the people act now, they have the opportunity to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars.''

In mid-December, the government had launched a survey to estimate the magnitude of the problem. Health authorities are being guided by the United Nations Development Programme, which is providing financial and technical assistance worth six million dollars.

Observes Najmus Sadiq, a UNDP official, ''Only recently has the recognition come that AIDS is a human development problem and is intricately interlinked with factors like poverty, unequal balance of power.''

There's a lot of work to be done. The famed International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research-Bangladesh, which also studies reproductive health issues, has reported a very low AIDS/HIV awareness in the south-eastern region. Only 20 per cent of the women interviewed had heard of the disease; less than five per cent understood its implications.

''A comprehensive AIDS education campaign would probably be the most effective approach towards preventing an epidemic in Bangladesh,'' an ICDDR-B survey reported.

Risky sexual behaviour, a contaminated blood supply and the sharing of drug-injecting equipment are the major factors contributing to the spread of the virus in the country.

Health ministry statistics show there are 800,000 drug addicts in Bangladesh. As of now, officials say, the majority take drugs by inhalation -- but the number of injecting drug users is rising.

With some two million Bangladeshis going abroad, mainly to the Gulf and south-east Asia, the possibility of their contracting HIV and infecting their wives and others at home on return is very serious.

The World Health Organisation and UNDP have stressed on the fallout of the disease on economic growth, particularly in poor countries which do not have the resources to cope with a health crisis. Studies in India, Philippines and Thailand clearly show that it is the family or the community that will bear the brunt of treating the patient.

Bangladesh health authorities, meanwhile, have pinned their hopes on the new strategy, which, if implemented without delay, could save the country from disaster.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report