Facing the challenges of HIV/AIDS
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Zahir Hossain
AROUND the world, more than 47 million people are now infected with the HIV/AIDS. It is now a weapon for destruction of mankind. It has killed more than 30 million people worldwide, according to the reports of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other United Nations agencies, since December 01, 1981 when it was first recognised.
This makes it the worst recorded pandemic in the history of pandemics against mankind. In 2006 alone, it was reported to have killed between 2.5 to 3.5 million people with more than 380000 as children. The large number of these people killed is from the sub-Saharan Africa. In some Sub-Saharan African countries, HIV/AIDS is expected to lower life expectancy by as much as 25 years.
AIDS is no longer a problem of medication. It is a problem of development. It is not just an individual hardship. It also threatens to decimate the future prospects of poor countries, wiping away years of hard-won improvements in development indicators. As a result of the disease, many poor countries are witnessing a worsening of the situation relating to child survival rates, reduced life expectancy, crumbling and over-burdened healthcare systems, the breakdown of family structures and the decimation of a generation in the prime of their working lives.
Bangladesh's socio-economic status, traditional social ills, cultural myths on sex and sexuality and a huge population of marginalised people make it extremely vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Everyone buying sex in Bangladesh is having unprotected sex some of the time, and a large majority do not use condoms most of the time. Behaviours that bring the highest risk of infection in Bangladesh are unprotected sex between sex workers and their clients, needle-sharing and unprotected sex between men.
Though the country overall has a low prevalence rate, it has reported concentrated epidemics among vulnerable population such as IDUs. There are already localised epidemics within vulnerable groups in, and the virus would spread among the IDUs' family or sexual partner.
In many poor countries, commercial female sex workers are frequently exposed to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs/STDs). Where sex workers have poor access to healthcare and HIV prevention services, HIV prevalence can be as high as 50-90%. Evidence shows that targeted prevention interventions in sex work settings can turn the pandemic around.
Bangladesh is a country of high prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly among commercial sex workers; there are available injection drug-users and sex workers all over the country. Condom use is low among the general population. Considering the high prevalence of HIV risk factors among the Bangladeshi population, HIV prevention research is particularly important for Bangladesh. It is very awful; several organisations in Bangladesh are working only to prevent HIV/AIDS but few of them try to develop proper strategic plans.
Poverty in Bangladesh is a deeply entrenched and complex phenomenon. Sequentially, the HIV/AIDS epidemic amplifies and causes deeper poverty by its serious economic impact on individuals, households and different sectors of the economy. Poverty is the reason for which the messages of prevention and control do not make an impact on a vast majority of the vulnerable population.
[The writer is M&E Specialist (BWSPP)]
AROUND the world, more than 47 million people are now infected with the HIV/AIDS. It is now a weapon for destruction of mankind. It has killed more than 30 million people worldwide, according to the reports of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other United Nations agencies, since December 01, 1981 when it was first recognised.
This makes it the worst recorded pandemic in the history of pandemics against mankind. In 2006 alone, it was reported to have killed between 2.5 to 3.5 million people with more than 380000 as children. The large number of these people killed is from the sub-Saharan Africa. In some Sub-Saharan African countries, HIV/AIDS is expected to lower life expectancy by as much as 25 years.
AIDS is no longer a problem of medication. It is a problem of development. It is not just an individual hardship. It also threatens to decimate the future prospects of poor countries, wiping away years of hard-won improvements in development indicators. As a result of the disease, many poor countries are witnessing a worsening of the situation relating to child survival rates, reduced life expectancy, crumbling and over-burdened healthcare systems, the breakdown of family structures and the decimation of a generation in the prime of their working lives.
Bangladesh's socio-economic status, traditional social ills, cultural myths on sex and sexuality and a huge population of marginalised people make it extremely vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Everyone buying sex in Bangladesh is having unprotected sex some of the time, and a large majority do not use condoms most of the time. Behaviours that bring the highest risk of infection in Bangladesh are unprotected sex between sex workers and their clients, needle-sharing and unprotected sex between men.
Though the country overall has a low prevalence rate, it has reported concentrated epidemics among vulnerable population such as IDUs. There are already localised epidemics within vulnerable groups in, and the virus would spread among the IDUs' family or sexual partner.
In many poor countries, commercial female sex workers are frequently exposed to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs/STDs). Where sex workers have poor access to healthcare and HIV prevention services, HIV prevalence can be as high as 50-90%. Evidence shows that targeted prevention interventions in sex work settings can turn the pandemic around.
Bangladesh is a country of high prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly among commercial sex workers; there are available injection drug-users and sex workers all over the country. Condom use is low among the general population. Considering the high prevalence of HIV risk factors among the Bangladeshi population, HIV prevention research is particularly important for Bangladesh. It is very awful; several organisations in Bangladesh are working only to prevent HIV/AIDS but few of them try to develop proper strategic plans.
Poverty in Bangladesh is a deeply entrenched and complex phenomenon. Sequentially, the HIV/AIDS epidemic amplifies and causes deeper poverty by its serious economic impact on individuals, households and different sectors of the economy. Poverty is the reason for which the messages of prevention and control do not make an impact on a vast majority of the vulnerable population.
[The writer is M&E Specialist (BWSPP)]