Yasmin Reema

The number of HIV cases has doubled in the last four years in the country though the number of service centers increases.

As the number of AIDS affected people are going up, the death toll is also increasing.

Because of the lack of rigorous examination of health workers abroad, the victims are afflicting their loved ones many times. Experts believe that HIV transmission can be prevented by raising awareness among the public, including at-risk populations.

However, a number of ministries are working together to solve the problem, the Health Department said. In the past one year, it has been possible to identify six people by examining the blood of an infectious disease hospital. Hospital authorities said that only 84 percent of them are foreign workers. Therefore, experts from every country overseas think HIV testing is compulsory.

The first HIV infectious disease was identified in Bangladesh in the 1st 1989. Since then, 10, 20,100 or 200 new patients have been identified each year. New patients have risen to 869 in 2018. One of the first patients infected with HIV died in 2000. The number of people killed in the same disease in 2018.

Last year's estimate by the UN HIV / AIDS agency UNAIDS says that the estimated number of HIV victims in Bangladesh is 13,000. Out of these, 6,455 people have been identified through public-private testing. People without a diagnosis are also not receiving treatment, while on the other hand the risk of infection is increasing.

Senior Manager of the National AIDS / STD Program of the Health Department. Akhtaruzzaman said the number of new HIV patients and deaths has steadily increased.

Earlier, new patients were more available in the at-risk group. But this year, the number of infections has increased in the general population. The rate of HIV infection in the country is low, just 0.01 percent. Although the infection rate is low, there is a risk of HIV due to population density, domestic and international migration, and unconsciousness. Besides, Bangladesh is at risk because of the high HIV infection rate in neighboring countries India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Already in 12 centers across the country, most of them came to Dhaka in hopes of full treatment. However, patients with infectious disease are not satisfied with hospital service.

According to government data, half of the victims have been identified in the last 20 years. Analysts fear that the situation will be dire if sex workers, veterinarians and hidden victims are not able to find them quickly.

BSMMU Department of Virology Professor Dr. Saifullah Munshi said, such patients are coming from countries in the Middle East. We can encourage them, you come, to get free HIV testing. HIVspecialist Dr. Syed Ahsan Touhid said, "As soon as the disease is diagnosed, we are providing treatment free and for a lifetime.

The number of people carrying the AIDS virus on earth is increasing. It is estimated that more than four million people around the world carry AIDS virus. According to the United Nations AIDS report, there are about four crore people in the world with HIV. This year, around 30,0000 people have died of AIDS and its complications. There were more than five million children among them. The report shows that Africa and others countries are still at high risk of being infected with AIDS.

The United Nations AIDS Committee is particularly concerned about the current situation. They say that the AIDS epidemic has spread in Middle East Asia. While HIV and AIDS infected India and Pakistan in India and Pakistan, HIV transmission rates are very positive, in some other states, the number of people identified as most vulnerable is increasing alarmingly.

Low-income populations of India, pregnant women in densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have lower HIV transmission rates among pregnant women. A significant number of married women in India are infected with HIV through their husbands. As the husbands go to brothel, they are infected with the deadly AIDS disease through sex workers. AIDS status in Karachi city of Pakistan is in dire shape.

The report by the United Nations AIDS Committee says HIV transmission rates among sex workers and their clients in East Asia and Thailand have dropped. Likewise, HIV transmission among gay men in Uganda, Spain and Brazil and gay men in Western Europe has been reduced. This success has come because of education and public awareness and preventive agenda.

The report also says the world has made dramatic progress in treating HIV-infected people. Now not only the rich people of North America and Western Europe, people from other regions are also getting drugs and treatment for this deadly disease. In Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Cuba, more than 5 percent of HIV-infected patients are now covered.

On the other hand, the United Nations AIDS report said that the situation was still alarming for the poorest countries in the world. Currently one in ten Africans and one in seven are getting AIDS drugs. This calculation was given by the middle of this year.

However, the head of the United Nations AIDS Committee has said that a large number of national and international activities, such as preventing the epidemic of a devastating, deadly, fatal disease like AIDS, are inadequate. He said that the levels and prevalence of HIV infection should be increased manifold. "We have to adopt long-term broad-based strategies from short-term small projects for this purpose," she said. We have not been able to control the HIV epidemic so far.

Reducing infection rates among people in some communities has proven that we can win the fight against AIDS. But that's why we need resources. People’s pressure and political agenda. They say that gay men and women need to invest a lot more money to campaign for safe sex.

Christian Aid officials are calling for more money to invest in preventing pandemics like AIDS. The fragile economy of Bangladesh and the politics of intolerance are far more frightening for the people of the country.

More and more people are carrying the AIDS virus every day and the number of people at risk is increasing rapidly. At the same time, if a comprehensive and effective method of preventing infection is not taken, then many people will die from this deadly disease.

The writer is a journalist & columnist