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Bangladesh asks for help to head off AIDS crisis
By Tim Large
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
BANGKOK (AlertNet) -Bangladesh, fearing it could be on the brink of an HIV/AIDS explosion as the disease spills across the border from giant neighbour India, called for international funds on Friday to help it fight the scourge.
Government officials attending a global AIDS conference in Bangkok described a crisis in the making, saying easy cross-border travel and mass ignorance about the disease made Bangladesh especially vulnerable.
“It’s only a matter of time,” said G.M. Quader, vice chair of the Parliamentary Caucus on HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh. “We may be in a big explosion situation regarding HIV/AIDS.”
Government statistics put the number of known infections in Bangladesh at just 363 out of a population of 147 million, but the United Nations' AIDS body, UNAIDS, estimates infections at around 13,000.
Quader said the actual number was probably much higher. He appealed for urgent funds to help launch prevention and treatment programmes.
“We want cheap medical facilities, drugs and testing facilities, and for that we need help from the international community,” he said.
Few people in resource-poor Bangladesh have access to screening, while the stigma surrounding AIDS keeps many from going for testing. Those who do test positive often find themselves denied help.
“Even the doctors, when it’s identified that this is an HIV patient, refuse to treat them,” Quader said. “If they do, no patients will go there again for fear they might catch the disease.”
M. Zahir Uddin Swapon, secretary general of Bangladesh Parliament Members’ Support Group on Prevention of HIV/AIDS and Human Trafficking, said the government was teaming up with the United Nations Development Programme and NGOs such as ActionAid to launch awareness programmes.
“That will be the first course, to remove stigma,” he told AlertNet.
Quader said the government was also calling on religious leaders to play a greater role in educating people about AIDS.
“We have trained around 50,000 imams to tell them this is okay -- AIDS is not a crime, it is not obscene,” he said.
