Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday underscored the need for engaging the vulnerable communities in the process of combating HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection in the country.
They also called for creating mass awareness about the disease in an effective way.
Community Forum of Bangladesh, a platform of KAP- (Key Affected People in regards to HIV/AIDS) organised the seminar entitled 'Connecting the Dots for Inclusive Development' marking 'World AIDS Day 2020' as a part of 16 days of Activism.
A PowerPoint presentation at the event showed that HIV prevalence remains less than 0.01 per cent amongst the general population.
The deadly virus prevalence remains about 3.9 per cent amongst the key population mostly in People Inject With Drug (PWID) in the country.
Estimated number of people living with HIV is 14,000 at present in Bangladesh.
A total of 141 people died of HIV infection in 2020.
Around 658 people have been infected with HIV virus in 2020, of which 124 are Rohingya people, the presentation also showed.
Among the HIV infected people, 33 per cent are from general population, 19 per cent from Rohingyas and 15 per cent from migrant workers.
Referring to the UNAIDS data, the presentation revealed that modelling on Civid-19 pandemic's long term impact on the HIV response shows that an estimated 1,23000 to 2,93000 additional HIV infections and 69,000 to 1,48,000 additional AIDS-related deaths will occur globally.
An estimated 26 million people were under treatment for HIV as of mid-June this year, up only by 2.4 per cent from estimated 25.4 million people at the end of 2019.
By comparison, treatment coverage increased by 4.8 per cent between January and June of 2019.
The community forum is formed with the people who are more vulnerable to HIV AIDS, which includes-transgender, female sex workers (FSW), people inject with drug (PWID), people who live with HIV (PLHIV), males having sex with males (MSMs), migrant workers and youths.
Every year 'World AIDS Day' is observed on December 01. Government officials, experts, NGOs representatives, among others, were present at the programme in the city.
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