Director general of the Directorate General of Health Services professor Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam recently said that Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome would be eradicated from Bangladesh by 2030.
The government had taken up extensive plans to expand HIV testing services in all the district level hospitals. The plans included establishing strong collaboration between the foreign affairs and the expatriates鈥� welfare ministries for tracking migrants, ensuring child transmission programme of pregnant mother under the government鈥檚 health service, and raising awareness among mass people, he said.
Khurshid Alam said that Bangladesh had been successful in eradicating or controlling many diseases, but it had stalled in controlling AIDS.
A study by the DGHS found that 1,276 new AIDS patients were identified in Bangladesh in 2023, with 266 deaths.
This marks the highest number of infections and deaths reported in the country within a year.
According to the study, among the infected, 1,118 are Bangladeshi citizens, and 158 are Rohingya refugees living in Cox鈥檚 Bazar. Of the infected, 84 per cent patients鈥� age was between 19-year and 49-year. Most of them were infected for taking drugs in their vain.
In 2022, 947 new AIDS patients were reported across the country, with 232 deaths.
The very first AIDS patient was reported in Bangladesh in 1989. Since then, 10,984 AIDS patients have been identified, with 2,086 deaths.
DGHS officials, however, assume that the country had more than 15,000 AIDS patients.
According to a keynote paper of Md Mahfuzur Rahman Sarkar, programme director of DGHS, with 342, Dhaka has the highest number of AIDS patients in the country, while Rangpur has recorded 34, the lowest number. There are 246 patients in Chattogram, 175 in Rajshahi, 141 in Khulna, 79 in Barisal, 61 in Sylhet, and 40 in Mymensingh.
HIV is a serious worldwide public health concern, having claimed the lives of 36.3 million people now.
According to the World Health Organisation, by the end of 2020, an estimated 37.7 million people were living with HIV. Furthermore, in 2020, 6,80,000 people died from HIV-related causes.
World AIDS Day takes place on December 1 each year. It is an opportunity for people worldwide to be united in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died of an AIDS-related illness.
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