Hiv/Aids in Bangladesh
HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh
With less than 0.1 percent of the population estimated to be HIV-positive, Bangladesh is a low HIV-prevalence country.
|Contents |
|[hide] |
|1 Prevalence |
|2 Preventive programs |
|3 Tuberculosis |
|4 National response |
|5 References |
Prevalence
The country faces a concentrated epidemic, and its very low HIV-prevalence rate is partly due to prevention efforts, focusing on men who have sex with men, female sex workers, and intravenous drug users. Four years before the disease’s 1989 appearance in the country, the government implemented numerous prevention efforts targeting the above high-risk populations as well as migrant workers. Although these activities have helped keep the incidence of HIV down, the number of HIV-positive individuals has increased steadily since 1994 to approximately 7,500 people in 2005 according to the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. UNAIDS estimates the number to be slightly higher at 11,000 people.[1]
While HIV prevalence among male homosexuals and sex workers has remained below 1 percent, unsafe practices among drug users, particularly needle sharing, have caused a sharp increase in the number of people infected. Measurements at one central surveillance point showed that between 2001 and 2005, incidence of HIV in IDUs more than doubled – from 1.4 percent to 4.9 percent, according to UNAIDS. In 2004, 9 percent of IDUs at one location in Dhaka were HIV-positive. Compounding the risk of an epidemic, a large proportion of IDUs (up to 20 percent in some regions) reported buying sex, fewer than 10 percent of whom said they consistently used a condom.[1]
Preventive programs
HIV/AIDS prevention programs have successfully reached 71.6 percent of commercial sex workers
With less than 0.1 percent of the population estimated to be HIV-positive, Bangladesh is a low HIV-prevalence country.
|Contents |
|[hide] |
|1 Prevalence |
|2 Preventive programs |
|3 Tuberculosis |
|4 National response |
|5 References |
Prevalence
The country faces a concentrated epidemic, and its very low HIV-prevalence rate is partly due to prevention efforts, focusing on men who have sex with men, female sex workers, and intravenous drug users. Four years before the disease’s 1989 appearance in the country, the government implemented numerous prevention efforts targeting the above high-risk populations as well as migrant workers. Although these activities have helped keep the incidence of HIV down, the number of HIV-positive individuals has increased steadily since 1994 to approximately 7,500 people in 2005 according to the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. UNAIDS estimates the number to be slightly higher at 11,000 people.[1]
While HIV prevalence among male homosexuals and sex workers has remained below 1 percent, unsafe practices among drug users, particularly needle sharing, have caused a sharp increase in the number of people infected. Measurements at one central surveillance point showed that between 2001 and 2005, incidence of HIV in IDUs more than doubled – from 1.4 percent to 4.9 percent, according to UNAIDS. In 2004, 9 percent of IDUs at one location in Dhaka were HIV-positive. Compounding the risk of an epidemic, a large proportion of IDUs (up to 20 percent in some regions) reported buying sex, fewer than 10 percent of whom said they consistently used a condom.[1]
Preventive programs
HIV/AIDS prevention programs have successfully reached 71.6 percent of commercial sex workers