"It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance."
On 1 December 2025, Bangladesh joins the world in observing World AIDS Day under the theme "Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response." The day highlights the urgent need for strong political leadership, global cooperation, and a human-rights-centered approach to achieving the goal of ending AIDS by 2030.
Global Situation
Since its recognition in 1988, World AIDS Day has served as a global platform to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, strengthen prevention efforts, and honour those who have lost their lives.
In 2024, an estimated 40.8 million people worldwide were living with HIV, while approximately 1.3 million individuals contracted new infections during the year. Despite progress in prevention and treatment, the epidemic continues to claim lives, with around 630,000 deaths attributed to HIV-related causes in 2024. Since the onset of the global HIV/AIDS crisis, cumulative deaths are estimated to fall between 27.2 million and 47.8 million, underscoring the enduring impact of the epidemic on public health. These figures highlight the urgent need to strengthen prevention, expand equitable access to treatment, and sustain global commitments to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Since 2004, when AIDS-related deaths reached their highest point, expanded access to antiretroviral therapy has driven a remarkable 64 per cent decline in mortality. This progress highlights how life-saving treatment, once limited to a few, is now reaching millions worldwide and transforming HIV from a fatal disease into a manageable condition.
Bangladesh's HIV Challenge: Numbers Tell the Story of Lives at Risk
Bangladesh continues to battle a low-prevalence but concentrated HIV epidemic, a crisis that has quietly persisted since the country's first case was detected in 1989. While prevalence in the general population remains below 0.01 per cent, the latest figures from the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy, and AIDS/STD Program (TB-L & ASP) under DGHS reveal the human toll behind the statistics.
In 2024, an estimated 16,069 people were living with HIV. That year alone, 1,438 individuals received a new diagnosis, and 195 lives were lost to HIV-related complications. Among them were 149 Rohingya refugees, underscoring the vulnerability of displaced communities with limited access to healthcare. Since the epidemic began, Bangladesh has recorded 2,412 AIDS-related deaths-each one representing a family left grieving.
The disease disproportionately affects young adults in their most productive years: 63% of infections occur among those aged 25-49, while another 21% are found in people aged 20-24. For many, the diagnosis comes at a time when they are building careers, raising families, or planning futures-making the impact not just medical, but deeply social and economic.
Perhaps most alarming is the surge in Sirajganj, where new HIV cases skyrocketed to 255 in 2025 compared to just 4 in 2020. Health officials link this sharp rise to intravenous drug abusers, a reminder that stigma and lack of harm-reduction programmes can turn a preventable risk into a public health emergency.
Behind every number lies a story: a young man who fears rejection from his community, a mother struggling to access treatment, or a refugee facing barriers to care. These figures are not just statistics-their lives are interrupted, futures uncertain, and families burdened. As Bangladesh works to strengthen its HIV response, the challenge remains not only medical but also profoundly human.
Breaking Myths: How HIV Spreads - and How It Does Not
HIV continues to be one of the most misunderstood health challenges of our time, not because of the science, but because of the stigma that surrounds it. HIV is not just a medical condition-it is a story of lives, fears, and resilience. The virus spreads through very specific routes: unprotected sexual contact, the sharing of contaminated needles, transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, and through unscreened blood transfusions. These are the pathways that demand vigilance, education, and prevention.
Equally important, however, is understanding how HIV does not spread. It cannot be passed through everyday gestures of humanity-hugging, shaking hands, even kissing. Nor does it travel through shared meals, drinks, or the air we breathe. Insects, water, and casual contact pose no risk whatsoever. Yet, despite decades of medical evidence, fear and misinformation often overshadow these truths. These truths have been established for decades, yet myths continue to fuel fear.
The real danger today is not physical contact-it is stigma. Too many people living with HIV are judged before they are understood, silenced before they are heard. A mother may hesitate to seek treatment for fear of rejection. A young man may hide his diagnosis, terrified of losing his community. Families may carry the weight of prejudice heavier than the illness itself. This stigma discourages testing, delays treatment, and fuels discrimination-turning what should be a manageable condition into a source of shame.
Every statistic hides a human face: someone's child, someone's partner, someone's friend. Compassion, not distance, is what saves lives. HIV does not spread through kindness, but stigma does-and it is the stigma that keeps people from testing, treatment, and hope. What spreads it most dangerously is ignorance.
Breaking myths is more than science, more than medical necessity; it is humanity. To embrace those living with HIV is to affirm that their lives matter, their dignity matters, and that no virus should ever steal away the simple power of human touch.
Prevention, Protection, and the Human Face of HIV
For more than four decades, the global fight against HIV has been marked by extraordinary progress, yet the journey is far from over. Prevention remains the cornerstone of protection: consistent condom use during sexual contact, access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for those at higher risk, timely Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) within 72 hours of exposure, regular testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and universal access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all HIV-positive individuals. These measures are not merely medical interventions-they are lifelines, offering hope and dignity to millions.
Still, the HIV response stands at a critical juncture. Service disruptions, entrenched inequality, and the heavy weight of social stigma continue to place vulnerable communities at risk. For many, the greatest challenge is not the virus itself but the silence, judgment, and isolation that follow a diagnosis. A young woman may hesitate to seek treatment for fear of rejection; a migrant worker may avoid testing, worried about losing his livelihood; a mother may carry the burden of secrecy, protecting her child while hiding her own truth.
Yet, amid these struggles, there is resilience. Communities across the world-health workers, activists, families, and people living with HIV-are working tirelessly to dismantle barriers and ensure that no one is left behind. Their commitment is a reminder that the fight against HIV is not only about science but about humanity.
Awareness, compassion, and inclusion remain the central pillars of this response. As we mark World AIDS Day, we should remember that HIV does not make people dangerous to know. It does not spread through kindness, touch, or embrace. As late Princess Diana once reminded the world: "HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them a hug - heaven knows they need it."
The path forward is clear: prevention through protection, treatment through access, and healing through compassion. Ending AIDS is not just a medical goal-it is also a moral imperative, a promise that dignity and humanity will triumph over fear and stigma.
Dr Marufa Afrin Mohona MBBS, MPH, is a Resident Medical Officer at Square Hospitals Ltd.
marufa.mohona.251@northsouth.edu