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AIDS infested India - deadly threat to Bangladesh

India's AIDS crisis
When Silence Kills


India's AIDS crisis is huge and growing, but both its government and wider society have yet to acknowledge the scale of the problem. The first step: get honest about sex

By Alex Perry

When the richest man in the world announced 21/2 years ago that he would give away $100 million to fight AIDS in India, he might have expected thanks. Instead, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was criticized by the government then in power in India for "spreading panic" and "completely inaccurate data" after he quoted much-cited predictions by the U.S.'s Central Intelligence Agency that the number of Indians infected with HIV and AIDS would top 20 million to 25 million by 2010. That trajectory would double today's global HIV/AIDS population and shift the epidemic's center from Africa to India. The Indian reaction to his pledge back in December 2002 was decidedly "mixed," Gates told TIME earlier this year. "The Prime Minister met me [but] there were other people trying to downplay the whole size of the problem. They didn't like the figures."

They still don't. India announced last week that it had cut the rate of new HIV infections by 95% in one year. The reaction was one of widespread disbelief. Granted, India's AIDS crisis is being taken more seriously than it once was. Dr. Seth Berkley, head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), says that when Sonia Gandhi won India's general election last May, "real, accelerated leadership on AIDS" arrived. In her only foreign trip as chairperson of India's ruling coalition, to the U.N. World AIDS Conference in Bangkok last year, Gandhi acknowledged that India had been ineffective in an increasingly "daunting" fight, and she has pledged to turn that record around. On a visit last week to India, Bill Clinton praised the government of Manmohan Singh, Gandhi's ally, for its commitment to "doing the right thing" on AIDS. But that would imply releasing accurate statistics, and the ones just out are startling. Whereas 2003 had seen 520,000 new infections in India, the Health Ministry said there were just 28,000 in 2004. Some states that had previously said they were home to hundreds of thousands of people with HIV and AIDS declared they were AIDS-free. Even government ministers had their doubts. "Our numbers may not be exactly accurate," said Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal. According to the official count, India has 5.13 million HIV/AIDS sufferers, while the U.N.'s estimate is up to 8.5 million. The Naz Foundation, a New Delhi-based AIDS charity, says the real figure may be closer to 15 million.

A problem that size demands resources to match. That's where Gates comes in. In 2000 he set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife and father, William Gates Sr., who is co-chair. With an endowment of $28.8 billion, it is the largest foundation in the world. In visits to India, Gates saw that the nation's AIDS crisis could reach a tipping point where it might turn into a pandemic. Yet this also struck him as a war that could still be won, given enough money and direct involvement. "We're much more on the ground [in India] than in any other country," said Gates. From $67.5 million set aside for a campaign targeting the districts where AIDS is prevalent and the highways by which it is carried, to $5 million for an Australian project to fight HIV among heroin addicts who live on the edge of the Golden Triangle area bordering Burma in northeastern India, Gates has so far pledged a total of $200 million to AIDS projects in India. "There was a need, a vacuum, an urgency." Says S.Y. Quraishi, director general of the country's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO): "The world's battle against HIV and AIDS is going to be won or lost in India."

Yet in many ways the work of the Gates Foundation and its partners has revealed just how tough that battle will be. India has still not confronted its AIDS epidemic with the honesty that is essential to success. Denial is still rife, and so is an uneasiness toward outsiders. Ever since the Gates Foundation made its first grant five years ago, its India campaign (called Avahan after the Sanskrit word for "clarion call") has functioned under a cloud of suspicion. The American's munificence is often dismissed as a cynical cover for his corporate ambitions in the country. Says Purushothaman Mulloli, head of the Joint Action Council Kannur, an Indian charity involved in AIDS-related work: "Gates' interest in HIV projects in India is not meant for charity but to protect his billions of dollars of investments in pharmaceutical companies interested in conducting field trials in India." "Doing good in India, and getting away with it, can be very, very difficult," says Avahan's New Delhi-based head Ashok Alexander. "Indians don't like to be in a begging-bowl position. And everyone suspects ulterior motives. The question is always: 'Why are you really here?'"

If it wasn't asked so often, that query would sound crazy. Says another Gates Foundation executive: "If it were a p.r. thing, we'd do something warm and fuzzy with kids. Can you think of anything you'd less like associated with your brand than sex work, anal sex, drug use and sexually transmitted diseases?" Yet it is precisely such matters that India now needs to discuss. And the nation finds it incredibly hard to do so. In India, people simply don't talk about sex. From the West the subcontinent can seem like a land of sensual exoticism, home to an erotic history stretching from the Kama Sutra to the epic Tantric orgasms celebrated by today's more ostentatiously profound pop stars. But India is more inclined to see itself as just the opposite—a bastion of decency under attack by Western forces of lust and pornography. While there are signs that India is loosening up—Bollywood couples now kiss onscreen, India has its own sex-obsessed edition of Cosmopolitan, and a lesbian couple recently married in New Delhi—there are many more indications that conservative morals still dominate. The Supreme Court effectively reaffirmed a ban on homosexuality last year, and "respectable" Indian women still wouldn't dream of owning a miniskirt or a bikini.

AIDS experts regard India's social constraints as a key reason the country hasn't yet seen infections reach the rates witnessed in Africa. But prudishness is also a liability. Two years ago, for example, India's then Health Minister pulled condom ads from state TV for indecency. While AIDS campaigners receive public money (albeit tiny sums), they have also been attacked by mobs and arrested by police. Half of India's parents marry off their daughters before they are 18, but almost none will tell them the facts of life. Suniti Solomon, a doctor who documented India's first case of HIV in Madras in 1986, describes how, at sex-education talks in schools, "parents have got up and screamed, 'Why are you spoiling our children? Our children are angels!'" Even her cardiac-surgeon husband avoids the subject. "If even I can't talk about it at home," she says, "imagine the distance the country still has to travel." Gates said he is more and more aware how big a task he has taken on: "AIDS relates to sexuality, drug use, men having sex with men, and it's very much [about] first owning up to the problem."

India has a lot of owning up to do, as health workers at the Gates Foundation know. As they fan out across India to study and quantify the country's sex industry, they are discovering a sexuality far more active and diverse than anyone suspected. A foundation executive in southern India describes as a "total revelation" the large communities of homosexuals, gay sex workers and transsexuals found in every major town. In India's cities, millions of men have long secretly visited brothels, and researchers in New Delhi have also discovered wife-swapping rings and networks of high-class prostitutes who double as executives and doctors by day, while in Bombay they found middle-class housewives—or "aunties"—who entertain teenage boys. "HIV brings your secrets out of the cupboard," says Sanghamitra Iyengar, director of Samuha Samraksha, which is a Bangalore AIDS NGO and a Gates Foundation partner. "And what always comes through is a much more colorful rainbow of sexuality than anyone expected." Far from exposing India to tawdry Western mores, says Arundhati Char, general manager of DKT India, a charity that promotes and provides contraceptives, those campaigning against AIDS are forcing the country to confront its own sexuality: "It's coming out into the open—boom!—and people are amazed. 'Is that right? Do these things happen?' We've even had to hold history classes for our sales staff to tell them about the Kama Sutra and show them it comes from our own culture."

Lifting the Covers
Neelu, 26, is an example of a culture many Indians would prefer to forget. He is a eunuch, or hijra. Like witches in medieval Europe, hijras make money blessing clients and cursing their enemies. But they are also the dirty little secret of some rail commuters. Neelu speaks of servicing 20 men a day for as little as 50¢ each while wandering the platforms of Madras' rail stations. On the lowest rung of India's social order, hijras have existed almost entirely outside mainstream society. "No ration cards, no identity cards, no vote," says Neelu. "Not even clients talked to us." Now, paradoxically, "AIDS has given us respect and recognition. Health workers and government people come to us, accept us, treat us as human beings."

Across town, the Gates Foundation is funding Dr. R. Lakshmibai of the Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative to take the first comprehensive head count of male sex workers in India. While the hijras were impossible to miss, she says she was shocked at the far larger number of conventionally dressed gay prostitutes; by her estimate, there may be thousands of them in Madras alone. "I thought it would be a minority thing," she says. "I could hardly even conceive of a male sex worker." Partly that's because in India, "even homosexuals don't accept homosexuals," adds Lakshmibai. "[Male] clients who pay for sex with a man don't consider it sex at all." As a result, many homosexuals would not even recognize their own relevance in condom or AIDS campaigns; and Lakshmibai says a persistent Indian myth is that AIDS is a "straight plague."

Delusion is hardly limited to the gay world. In India's business capital, Bombay, a surging economy has produced millions of young men with money to burn and an industry of 80,000 women in thousands of "dancing bars" keen to take it. Some clubs are simply brothels with a bar. But in high-end establishments, patrons and managers join in an elaborate pretense to mask the sex on sale. A typical bar will feature 30 or so girls in saris dancing coquettishly to Bollywood numbers as customers look on from sofas like modern Mughal Emperors. There is no touching or nudity, and devoted customers shower their favorite dancers with hundreds of dollars in small notes. After hours, it's a different story. "Definitely, some girls have sex with customers," says Manjit Singh, owner of the Karisma, a dance bar in downtown Bombay, and head of the city's dance-bar association. "We keep it decent in here, but how can we control that?" DKT India general manager Char says even the women buy into the illusion. "Many of these girls are married," she says, "but they haven't told their husbands, their friends or their neighbors. And they'd certainly never use a term like 'sex worker.'" Char considers the dance bars an improvement in Bombay's red-light areas. There is less sexual slavery, and bar owners like Singh who preach safe sex have helped keep HIV prevalence relatively low at 10%, according to surveys by various NGOs, compared with 50% in the city's brothels. But she warns that Singh is an exception and his competitors' pretense that they are not in the sex industry means "this is an epidemic in waiting." On April 12, R.R. Patil, Deputy Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra, which includes Bombay, announced his intention to shut all 1,300 of the city's dance bars, saying: "These bars are corrupting the moral fiber of our youth and culture." There was no announcement, however, about the less visible, more infected red-light ghettos, where thousands of former dance-bar girls may end up if Patil goes ahead with his plan.

A day's drive south of Bombay, in the district of Koppal amid the rocky barrens of the northern Karnataka state, there's no pretending anymore. Brought in by truckers and migrant workers returning from the cities, AIDS is referred to in Karnataka as "Bombay Disease." HIV was first detected in the district 12 years ago, and health surveys show the prevalence of AIDS in Koppal's million-plus population may already have reached 5-8%. Dr. Satish Bhuthaieh of Samuha Samraksha holds a weekly clinic in the village of Kustigi in a shack with two attached dormitories—one for women, one for men—that are reserved for the dying. That the disease has long crossed over into the general population is apparent from the 300 people—truckers, migrants, prostitutes, grandmothers, child brides and toddlers—outside his door. Samuha director Iyengar says HIV was spread by more than the mere mobility of truckers and migrants. "Most married men have multiple partners," she says. "And women quite often have a steady stand-in partner, or more than one, for when their husband goes away." Koppal is a testament to the dangers of denial. "When the first cases started appearing, the government said: 'AIDS is not an issue in India. This is a foreign thing. Condoms only promote promiscuity.' Today, every single village in Koppal knows it's an issue. There's not one untouched by HIV. And that's because none of those cherished ideas about sex and fidelity apply." Asked how far ahead Koppal is of the rest of India, Iyengar replies: "Five years."

TIMEasia Magazine: When Silence Kills
 
AIDS Threat to Bangladesh from India

Mohammad Zainal Abedin - 10/24/2005

Indian demand for corridor, under the guise of transit must be thwarted to keep it free from HIV/AIDS, as it will spread the menace in the country rapidly. India is now the largest AIDs and HIV contaminated country in the world. According to Feacham, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, India has outstripped South Africa and has more people living with AIDS than any other country. Being the second largest populous country in the world, it will not be strange if India have already outstripped South Africa. While UNAIDS puts the Indian figure at 5.1 million, Feacham said that, with the speed at which the disease was spreading, the figure in India must by now exceed the South African figure of 5.3 million. Feacham suspected that the figure in India might already have crossed 1 per cent of the population and what really set the alarm bells ringing, as WHO, UNAIDS and Indian Council of Medical Research, some experts put the figure at 8 million (India sitting on AIDS bomb? - India - NEWS - The Times of India).

On the other hand the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has forecast the number of people with HIV/AIDS in India could touch 20 million by 2010.

The rapid spreads of the menace among the Indian security forces, particularly deployed in the India's Northeastern states having common borders with Bangladesh, indicates how seriously the disease is spreading in India, which poses serious threat to Bangladesh. Indian security forces, particularly, Assam Rifles, officially admitted the presence of HIV/AIDS virus among many of its jawans. Sensing the imminent danger, Indian Defence authorities have asked soldiers battling violent separatist insurgencies in India's troubled northeast to carry condoms to prevent contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Assam Rifles jawans top in the list to have endured with AIDS/ HIV while among the three defence forces Army jawans rank highest to have contacted with this dreaded diseases, said Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services (DGFAMS), V.K. Singh.Assam Rifles Chief, Lieutenant General Bhopinder Singh revealed that 141 of his jawans have been tested AIDS/HIV positive and presently are undergoing medical treatment while 32 others have died(http://northeasttribune.com/4805.htm).

As a preventive measure, on the other hand, India's President A J Abdul Kalam said all new recruits to the country's armed forces would be tested for the HIV virus after the deaths of some 200 soldiers due to AIDS in the past two years.

"The military will be testing for HIV in new recruits and undertake pre-natal examination of wives of personnel in the services," President Abdul Kalam said recently at an army seminar in Shillong in India's restive northeast where thousands of troops are posted to "fight separatist rebels." Officials said the HIV testing would start this October.

"HIV/AIDS has become a security threat to India ," Lieutenant-General Bhupinder Singh told the seminar. "AIDS is no less destructive than war itself. We want to keep our force fighting fit." Government records show more than 300 soldiers are currently infected with the HIV virus

(http://in.today.reuters.com/news/Ne...130634Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-217221-1.xml).

To avert the disease, Vice Admiral V.K. Singh, Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services, told soldiers at an army cantonment in the Meghalaya state capital Shillong to use condom during extra-marital sexual intercourses. "We have instructed our men to carry stocks of condoms to prevent contracting HIV-AIDS while working in vulnerable areas," he acknowledged.

The directive to carry condoms comes after army and paramilitary authorities in the northeast confirmed that scores of soldiers deployed in the region were struck by HIV, with promiscuous sex being the main reason for contracting the deadly virus.

The paramilitary Assam Rifles was the first to officially acknowledge the presence of a large number of soldiers afflicted with HIV-AIDS, although other army and paramilitary units in the Northeast are yet to come up with a formal
assessment(Condoms for troops battling N-E rebels - India - NEWS - The Times of India).

The instruction for precautionary measures and warning from the head of the state did not come without sufficient reason. But they deliberately bypassed one reason of taking so much precautionary measures, including testing the wives of the jawans. The most serious reason was the threat of the Northeast rebels. The Times of India in a despatch on September 26, 2005, said, "Insurgent groups in the Northeast are now threatening to use a new weapon against India's security forces."

The Assam Rifles has received threats from the militants that they would let loose HIV infected women to spread the disease among jawans posted in the region. The DG of Assam Rifles, Lt. Gen. Bhoopinder Singh acknowledged that they received threats from the insurgent groups fighting to secede their regions from India. "The insurgent groups will unleash women infected with HIV to spread the disease among our jawans as a way to neutralising the security forces. . Criminals groups are also trying to infect gullible young girls of this region with the virus in order to leave a trail of HIV in the region."

The Additional Project Director of National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) N S Dharmashaktu informed, "Insurgent groups are now trying new, less expensive ways to attack our forces. Biological warfare has become a reality. AIDS can be quite a deadly weapon. It does not need money, sophisticated weapons and manpower. All they have to do is infect young hapless girls of the region with AIDS and let them inflect our security forcers with the disease."

The precautionary measures taken by the concerned Indian authorities indicate that AIDS emerges as such a menace for Assam Rifles that it has already claimed the lives of 40 Assam Rifles jawans, while 139 other are lying infected. Assam Rifles is spending Rs. 2 crore annually on the caretaking programmme of the inflected jawans. It has established a three-tier HIV/AIDS control faciltieis in the regin. An AIDS centre at CPAR Hospital at Sukhoi is being set up. Over 40 treatment detection centres have also been established. It is also upgrading 30-bed existing unit to 50-bed nodal centres in Shilong of Meghalaya. Over 275 testing and reporting centres have also been built at all company posts where the samples will be collected. Knowledgeable sources believe that the situation in other branches of Indian security services are equally dangerous, which are kept hidden under the blanket of secrecy. Indian authorities for obvious reason do not disclose the deteriorating health situation in the Armed Forces. The comments of several officials, even the suggestion of the President, to test the jawans before their recruit and even their wives unveils the gravity of AIDS menace in the Armed Forces and the common people as well.

This also reveals the truth that Indian soldiers are morally bankrupt and India officially allows them to be bankrupt through commiting such immoral and illegal act of sexual relations. If the jawans are officially allowed to have illegal sexual transactions, the wives of these jawans will automatically indulge in same immoral acts with their boyfriends. The process will automatically lead India to a greater Bothell

Sex is now a booming industry in India. India now earns crores of rupees every by selling the flesh of its girls and young women. People of different age group from several countries particularly from Bangladesh and Middle Eastern countries throng India to buy sex. As a result, HIV and AIDS virus spread in India in an alarmingly way.

Security forces of any country, are to maintain generally restricted and regulated life. If the position of the Indian security forces is so serious the condition of the common people is more dangerous. The disease surely has spread among the common people more horribly. So being a neighbouring country Bangladesh faces a serious threat to HIV/AIDS virus. It can spread in Bangladesh in various ways. Indian truck drivers, helpers and labourers who illegally enter and stay inside Bangladesh territory near the land ports exchange sex with the local prostitutes.

About 2,000 Indian trucks enter Bangladesh daily. If even a microscopic number these Indian truckers, are infected with HIV or AIDS virus, it will surely spread in Bangladesh.

The disease can also spread in Bangladesh through the Indian businessmen and tourists and illegal Indians, who frequently enter Bangladesh. Indians can enter Bangladesh from three sides and all the states neighbouring Bangladesh have strong presence of HIV/AIDS.

Preventive measures should be taken immediately. Number of truckers, businessmen, tourists and illegal Indians must be restricted immediately.

Illegal intrusion should be stopped at any cost. Law enforcers should remain vigil to deter the entrance of the illegal Indians. Bangladesh missions in India must seek health certificates from the Indians before issuing visa.

HIV/AIDS virus testing machines, if possible, in all the entry point of Bangladesh to avert the spread of the disease.

Under this situation, if transit is given to India, Bangladesh will not be able to get rid of the menace of HIV/AIDS virus. So the pressure of providing corridor to India in the name of transit must be thwarted not only for economic and military reasons, but also keep Bangladesh free of the AIDS threat from India.

Global Politician - AIDS Threat to Bangladesh from India

You must inform those Bangladeshi girls!!
 
Truth hurts? Besides, the date shouldn't bother you.




Relieved to hear that. India needs to work on it with assistance from it's neighbors if necessary. Moral education helps too.

And please, provide links to the articles. Maybe you tried to embed the url's but it didn't work lol.

Truth Hurts..What a punch line..I am dying in my bed..:hitwall:

Read through the links here.

HIV/AIDS in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BBC NEWS | South Asia | 'Sharp drop' in India Aids levels

http://data.unaids.org/pub/PressRelease/2007/070706_indiapressrelease_en.pdf

WHO | 2.5 million people in India living with HIV, according to new estimates

2.5 million of 1.2 billion is about 0.28%, even developed countries have more percentages of population living with AIDS.

So, we have high morals than Bangladeshis whose sisters and mothers sleep with our truck drivers to earn few rupees. So go fix your own backyard, you moron.
 
My goshh.. I aint sleeping with any Indian girl...:no:
 
So, we have high morals than Bangladeshis whose sisters and mothers sleep with our truck drivers to earn few rupees. So go fix your own backyard, you moron.

You got to be ashame of yourself for such low-life disgusting comment, wonder how will you feel if your were at the receiving end. Shame on you.:tdown::mod:
 
Angoor khatte hain.... :lol:

They are talking like some body is forcing them to sleep with Indians :lol: Most of them are doing it for money and it is again spreading in Bangladesh because they are visiting the same prostitutes Indians are visiting and dont use proper protection for sex..the behavior of Bangladeshis makes me think that they need some serious education on how Aids is spreading..I guess some Bangladeshis are thinking that it is spreading through air :lol:
 
Just for the experts of ASIA
Specially the smaller countries with high rate of HIV, AID's infected
GR08_2007_HIVPrevWallMap_GR08_en.jpg


Latest epidemiological trends

In Asia, an estimated 4.7 million [3.8 million–5.5 million] people were living with HIV in 2008.

The number of new HIV infections decreased from 400 000 in 2001 [310 000–480 000] to 350 000 [270 000–410 000] in 2008.

In 2008, an estimated 330 000 [260 000–400 000] people died of AIDS-related illnesses. While the annual number of deaths in South and South-East Asia in 2008 was approximately 12% lower than the mortality peak in 2004, the rate of HIV-related mortality in East Asia continues to increase.

Asia, home to 60% of the world’s population, is second only to sub-Saharan Africa in terms of people living with HIV. India accounts for roughly half of Asia’s HIV prevalence.

With the exception of Thailand, every country in Asia has an adult HIV prevalence of less than 1%.

While the regional epidemic appears to be stable overall, HIV prevalence is increasing in some parts of the region, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan.

In certain states in India (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu), HIV prevalence among 15–24-year-old women attending antenatal clinics declined by 54% between 2000 and 2007.

The proportion of women living with HIV in the region rose from 19% in 2000 to 35% in 2008. In India, women accounted for an estimated 39% of prevalence in 2007.

The regional picture regarding treatment scale-up is mixed. As of December 2008, 37% of those in Asia needing antiretroviral therapy were receiving it. This represents a sevenfold increase in treatment access in five years.


There is an urgent need in the region to improve HIV testing services. In China, fewer than one in three people living with HIV have been diagnosed.
Key regional dynamics

Although Asia’s epidemic has long been concentrated in specific populations, namely sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users, it is steadily expanding into lower-risk populations through transmission to the sexual partners of those most at risk.

In China, where transmission was mainly driven by injecting drug use, heterosexual transmission has now become the main mode of HIV transmission.

In many Asian countries, sex workers are at an extremely high risk of HIV infection. In Myanmar, more than 18% of female sex workers are infected with HIV. In China, 60% of female sex workers do not consistently use condoms with their clients.

Male sex workers are also at high risk of infection. In Indonesia, HIV prevalence is nearly three times higher among male sex workers (20.3%) than among female sex workers (7.1%).


More than 4.5 million Asians inject drugs. With an estimated 2.4 million drug injectors, China is estimated to have the world’s largest population of injecting drug users. In the Islamic Republic of Iran there are an estimated 70 000 to 300 000 injecting drug users, while in Pakistan the number ranges from 54 000 to 870 000.

Several countries have taken steps to introduce programmes to prevent new infections among injecting drug users. Indonesia revised its national AIDS strategy in 2007 to include harm reduction and a new ruling was issued by the judicial court, prioritizing drug rehabilitation over imprisonment of drug users. Harm reduction programmes have also been implemented in China and India.

Men who have sex with men in Asia face nearly one in five odds of being infected with HIV. High levels of HIV among men who have sex with men have been reported in Myanmar (29.3%), Bangkok (30.7%), Chongqing, China (12.5%), southern India (between 7.6% and 18.1%) and Indonesia (5.2%).
http://data.unaids.org/pub/FactSheet/2009/20091124_FS_asia_en.pdf
 
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People here should get to know the causes and ways AIDS/HIV spreads. Just to share something interesting. I was sharing my room with another Indian folk in Cape town and that guy never eat foods which are locally made (We buy our stuff from Pakistani shops) because he thinks that as SA is #1 in aids and may be in processing of those food stuff by locals and by eating those HIV may traverse to him... when he told us we burst out of laughing..
 
AIDS/HIV situation in Bangladesh: A Looming Threat

Mohammad Sorowar Hossain
Research Fellow, National University of Singapore
Email: sorowar@tll.org.sg


Recently, a report on the AIDS cases came out in the daily newspaper According to that report, more than 13 thousand people are carrying HIV in Bangladesh and the experts have classified the AIDS situation as concentrated epidemic. Ironically, the government was downplaying the actual AIDS cases, just informing only 282 and taking credit from the international community! But in reality, the actual figure would be far higher than the reported one. Due to stigma and fear of discrimination HIV infected people are so scared to come forward with their diseases and ask for treatment and health care. It can make people hide their HIV status amidst fear of rejection from loved one. HIV testing is another area where discrimination is evident. Voluntary HIV tests and counseling is often limited, not well known, inaccessible or only in urban areas. People may also be deterred from getting tested because of laws that restrict an individual’s confidentiality. So it is impossible to get the exact HIV status in Bangladesh.


AIDS posing a challenge to the mankind already claimed the lives of more than 23 million, killing more than 3 million people every year. According to WHO report 2002, an estimated 42 million people throughout the globe currently is living with HIV. Another 70 million men, women and children may die of AIDS in the next 20 years and 25 million children will be orphans by 2010.

African human civilization is threatened to extinction due to HIV. 28.5 million people are HIV positive, in which about 30% of the total adult population having this deadly virus and 7000 people is dying every day (BBC report). In South Africa one in nine people are infected with HIV. In Botswana and Namibia about 40% of the total population is fighting with AIDS. In the Bahamas 60% of deaths among children under the age of five are from AIDS and in Zimbabwe the corresponding figure is 70%. AIDS is shaking the very foundations of the African progress. East African universities has reported that an average of 2 to 3 deaths occurs per month among the faculty members while university of Nairobi reported an average death rate of 2 stuff members per week. In Batswana, 35-45% of all teachers are infected. HIV also infects the African economy. A study of African countries suggests that for countries with HIV/AIDS prevelance levels above 20%, GDP is estimated to be 2.6 percentage less per year. Recently it has been reported that last six months 220,000 people died due to AIDS in China. (Channel NewsAisa, October 4, 2003)

Dr. Robert Gallo first discovered HIV, the causative agent of AIDS in 1984. Nobody knows the origin of HIV. Scientists believe that it might have come from African green money or laboratory accident. The earliest known case of HIV was from a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. How he became infected is unknown. HIV destroys the body’s defense systems so that they can no longer defend the body against infections and other disorders. AIDS patients are severely suffered from at least 29 opportunistic infections, which are rarely seen in healthy people. The life expectancy after acquiring the disease is only up to five years.

There are some myths associated with the transmission of the disease. The HIV infection is not acquired (or transmitted) via mosquitoes, food, water, toilet seats, swimming pools, sweat, tears, clothing and a handshake. HIV is mainly transmitted through sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal and oral) or through contact with infected blood, semen, or cervical and vaginal fluids. This is the most frequent mode of transmission of HIV worldwide. Blood transfusion or transfusion of blood products (e.g. obtained from donor blood infected by HIV) injecting equipment such as needles or syringes, or skin-piercing equipment and mother to child are also the route of transmission. Homosexual activity is one of the most talked about issue for the rapid transmission of AIDS because anal sex (practiced by Guys) can cause the rectal bleeding and thereby allow easy transmission of HIV. At the beginning of the epidemic most AIDS/HIV cases were limited to homosexual people.

The curatives for HIV are still elusive. Scientists are working hard around the clock to devise an effective vaccine against HIV. But the fact remains, however, that virus is so smart, disguising the body’s defense systems by rapidly mutating its genetic material, which foils the vaccine developmental efforts. Currently some antiviral drugs have been marketed which are highly costly and toxic for the body but can not cure the AIDS at all, just lengthen the life expectancy of the patients. For instance, the cost of one treatment of AZT alone is around $8000 per year, which is not affordable to general people.

Why is the HIV situation so alarming in Bangladesh?

We are used to feel proud that we have conservative society where moral climate is better than that of other western countries. But the real scenario is quite terrible, unbelievable. Everything what we call “obscene activities” are going under curtain. Moral values especially among the young generations are aggravating very fast. Although there are only 14 well-established prostitutions (two of which were evicted from Narayangaon) all the residential hotels (ranging from high to low class) in major cities are thriving on sex business. All river ports, seaports are well known for sex affairs. Just after evening all the parks in the Dhaka city are considered to be sex venues for low class people. Important studies of the sex industry identified large numbers (1,70,000 including 8,000 to 10,000 hijra) of generally non-literate sex workers (SWs) whose customers represent all segments of society. Female SWs have an average of 2-5 clients a day, making the number of clients about half a million men a day. In addition, ‘floating prostitutes’ are present in large number but the precise distribution and prevalence are unknown. It is suspected that large numbers of young and mostly single female textile and garment workers may also supplement their low wages by occasional prostitution.

Sex outside marriage might be more widespread than traditionally acknowledged. Documented sexual practices include premarital, extramarital and male-to-male sex particularly among youth. For example, some studies indicated a high percentage of (around 50%) youths to have experience of sex before marriage and occurrences of induced abortions among women. 60% of long distance truck drivers have sex with commercial sex workers about twice a month without any knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Extra-marital sex appears to exist in rural societies and in particular where husbands are absent for long periods.

Police: Sad to say that our law enforcers (police) are very corrupted and morally degraded. It would be wise to include them under high-risk groups for HIV spreading. In Africa, police and armies are badly affected by AIDS. The ministries of defenses of several African countries have provided the UN with values of 20-40% infection rates among the African soldiers, police. In some countries numbers as high as 60% were reported. In our country sex workers are used to allege “they (police) abuse us at night, treat us inhumanely and do not pay money for sexes with them. Threats from HIV/AIDS are not big problems for us. The police violation is the prime concern for us”

Barber shops: in our country it’s a very common practice to use same blade or special type of knife (Khur) repeatedly without sterilization. This practice is also common in our neighboring countries. Even WHO experts are focusing very little on this issue. But this would be one of the major factors, which may increase the risk of spreading of HIV infection where the HIV epidemic is looming at large.

Looks unfamiliar but in reality, homosexual activities are widespread in our conservative society. It has been reported that, Bangladeshis are very active on global gay scene. But those still in the closet oscillate between confusion, guilt and fear. Since some gay activists in Bangladesh are highly educated, once in while, foreign education is being cited as reason for being gay. A gay Australian Professor Garry Dowsett, who wrote a research a paper, Men Who Have Sex With Men In Bangladesh, as part of an HIV-related research project, describes a complex pattern of sexual activity – teenage male prostitution in Dhaka parks, a custom of sex between male cousins and brothers-in-law, a tradition of transvestism. According to Dr Safiul Azam, associate professor of Sociology at Dhaka University, homosexuality is increasing at the rate of 3.5% a year. Demonstration of homosexual tendencies for short periods is quite common in our society. Those practicing are not ostracized, although if caught, are ridiculed. Like in other societies gay relation flourish in dormitories, barracks, labor colonies, prisons (very common) and hostels, and authorities are hard pressed to keep them secret. Male prostitutes are available in most towns. In rural areas, homosexuality is generally considered something that young people do for fun and some elders may do in secret. But almost no discussion can take place on the subject, even with the threat of HIV/AIDS looming over Bangladesh and gays being identified as one of the most vulnerable groups

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are a major factor in the spread of HIV infection and serve as indicators of low condom use and other high-risk sexual behaviors. Studies have shown high rates of STDs in various populations. In 1989, syphilis rates of 56% and 39% were found among floating and institutional SWs respectively. In 1997, 54% of 980 SWs gave a history of present or past symptomatic STDs. Recent reports indicate high levels of STDs amongst various other groups. Condoms are not generally the preferred method of contraception. According to a survey conducted by Governmental organizations, about 98% of the floating prostitutes don’t use condom while 96% of the hotel sex workers. Two third of the rickshaw pullers and truck divers never use condom. Furthermore, knowledge of condoms as a means to prevent STDs is very low. Approximately 200,000 required units of blood is currently largely (70-75%) provided by professional blood donors of whom approximately 20% are positive for hepatitis B and/or syphilis. Available data from Client Monitoring System of Department of Narcotics Control and other research reports shows that prevalence of injecting drug use (IDU) is on the rise. Most injecting drug users (IDUs) in Bangladesh share needles. In some areas the professional injectors use one needle for many IDUs. There are estimated 25,000 IDUs mainly in Dhaka, Rajshahi, and other towns including border areas. Prevalence of STDs is quite high among drug users in general. It’s a matter of great concern that our neighbouring countries- India, Barma and Nepal are considered to be the epicenter of HIV epidemic in this region. Currently, about 4 million people in India are having HIV.The epidemic of HIV/AIDS in India is following the same pattern as that of sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s and it could become just a devastating unless preventive action is taken now. A report from CIA’s National intelligence Council projects that the number of people infected with HIV in India will jump to 20-25 million by 2010. The Bangladesh economy relies on more than 1.5 million migrant workers mostly from neighboring countries, including truck drivers, businessmen and laborers.These migrants, who spend much of the year away from their families, are known to be at increased risk of contracting HIV

Reasons behind the degradation of moral climate

Religion and the family have immense impact on the nation’s moral, but their influence is declining. Education should have positive effects on morals, but it is failing to fulfill that responsibility. We are the second largest Muslim nation in the world. But what proportion of the Muslim population is practicing Islam? Frankly speaking we are Muslim by name. Only a very few portion of the population is practicing the religion. Islam including all the regions condemns all sorts of illegal sexual behaviors and emphasizes on the moral values. Prophet Muhammad (SWT) has said, “ when sin afflicts people and they publicize it, then Allah sunjcets them to ailments unknown in their forefathers.” (Reorted in Sahi Tirmizi)

In our country moral climate is getting worse mainly due to available Indian movies, cable TV and pornographic films. In major cities educated (school, college and university going) young generation is also badly affected by Internet where pornography is easily available. These days, getting excess to cable TV is very easy and cheap. Most of the channels display ****** programs often targeted to the teenagers and younger children. Even shows touted as “family friendly” are filled with sexual innuendo, moral perversion, homosexuality and every combination of dysfunctional families that you can think of. VCD shops are so wide spread that you can find every nook and corner of the towns and even in the villages. All the shops are usually used to display the Indians VCD but porno VCDs remain under the self. Worth mentioning, last year I went to my village where there is no electricity and most of the people are illiterate. I was agape to see the VCD shop! Our government or political leaders are indifferent about the moral degradation. But leaders of some ASEAN countries (Singapore, Malaysia) have restricted the cable TV and banned porno films. Our government must take bold steps to prevent moral degration otherwise a bleak future is awaiting for us.

Religion is the key to curtailing the HIV epidemic


Only education and awareness will not prevent HIV epidemic. As we know, USA is the most civilized industrial nation in the world. But studies show that HIV infection rate is still high. Moreover, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are also increasing at an alarming rate. The annual incidence of syphilis is 130,000, gonorrhea 1.4 million, chlamydia 4 million, pelvic inflammatory disease 420,000 and genital herpes about 500,000. Muslim societies in love with Western life style are also catching up. Another important point needs to mull over that emphasis on condoms give a false impression about the safety. FDA study showed that new codoms had breakge rates of up to 9% and there was a 38% leakage rate of HIV-size particles (AIDS virus is one-fifth the size of the sperm) in the condom tested. So condoms are not totally risk-free to prevent HIV infection.

As muslims, we are fortunate to have in our culture and way of life the basic essential elements of an effective solution. Decency, modesty and virtuous sexual morality are vital factors in controlling the virus casuing AIDS epidemic and its spread. Figures published by WHO on the spread of AIDS in the world show very clearly that Islamic values and traditions, although not fully adhered to or respcted, represnts a strong and effecive means of prevetion against the spread of the virus in the muslim countries. Rates of infection in muslim countries are far lower than those in non-muslim ones. Infection is also much lower amonst Muslims living in non-Muslim countries. This fact should not prevent us, however, from opening our eyes to see problem that is growing amonst us.

Blaming certain groups also allows societies to avoid responsibility of dealing with the epidemic. This denial can be dangerous. Government may hide cases, fail to gether accurate data or not care for people with HIV/AIDS. Officials may use figures of detected cases rather than estimated cases to downplay the magnitude of the epidemic in the country. People at risk may be denial. They may assure a false sense of security by believing only “ outsiders” or marginalized groups can become infected. Stigmatizing an AIDS patient as being sinful or deserving punishment serves little purpose. Besides the fact that many AIDS patients contracted the disease without being sinful, stigmatizing AIDS patients actually further promotes the spread of the disease.
 
There are approximately 170,000 sex workers in Bangladesh, in addition to some 13,000 child sex workers (male and female). On average, female sex workers serve three clients per day and they are often pressurized into unprotected sex and are frequent targets for rape and sexual violence.

An estimated 300,000 children either earn their living on the streets, or actually 'live' on the street. Some 13,000 of those are believed to earn their living through prostitution.

The 'hijra' comprise a particular subculture within Bangladesh. They define themselves as neither men nor women. Social 'separation' means they are less likely to be reached by awareness campaigns.

There are an estimated 35,000 Professional Blood Donors in Bangladesh. Many are also laborers, rickshaw pullers or are homeless. A high percentage are known to engage in pre, or extra-marital sex and many are suspected of being drug users. More than 100,000 people are known to be infected yearly with hepatitis B and syphilis, as a result of blood transfusions.
 
Just for the experts of ASIA
Specially the smaller countries with high rate of HIV, AID's infected
GR08_2007_HIVPrevWallMap_GR08_en.jpg


Latest epidemiological trends

In Asia, an estimated 4.7 million [3.8 million–5.5 million] people were living with HIV in 2008.

The number of new HIV infections decreased from 400 000 in 2001 [310 000–480 000] to 350 000 [270 000–410 000] in 2008.

In 2008, an estimated 330 000 [260 000–400 000] people died of AIDS-related illnesses. While the annual number of deaths in South and South-East Asia in 2008 was approximately 12% lower than the mortality peak in 2004, the rate of HIV-related mortality in East Asia continues to increase.

Asia, home to 60% of the world’s population, is second only to sub-Saharan Africa in terms of people living with HIV. India accounts for roughly half of Asia’s HIV prevalence.

With the exception of Thailand, every country in Asia has an adult HIV prevalence of less than 1%.

While the regional epidemic appears to be stable overall, HIV prevalence is increasing in some parts of the region, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan.

In certain states in India (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu), HIV prevalence among 15–24-year-old women attending antenatal clinics declined by 54% between 2000 and 2007.

The proportion of women living with HIV in the region rose from 19% in 2000 to 35% in 2008. In India, women accounted for an estimated 39% of prevalence in 2007.

The regional picture regarding treatment scale-up is mixed. As of December 2008, 37% of those in Asia needing antiretroviral therapy were receiving it. This represents a sevenfold increase in treatment access in five years.


There is an urgent need in the region to improve HIV testing services. In China, fewer than one in three people living with HIV have been diagnosed.
Key regional dynamics

Although Asia’s epidemic has long been concentrated in specific populations, namely sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users, it is steadily expanding into lower-risk populations through transmission to the sexual partners of those most at risk.

In China, where transmission was mainly driven by injecting drug use, heterosexual transmission has now become the main mode of HIV transmission.

In many Asian countries, sex workers are at an extremely high risk of HIV infection. In Myanmar, more than 18% of female sex workers are infected with HIV. In China, 60% of female sex workers do not consistently use condoms with their clients.

Male sex workers are also at high risk of infection. In Indonesia, HIV prevalence is nearly three times higher among male sex workers (20.3%) than among female sex workers (7.1%).


More than 4.5 million Asians inject drugs. With an estimated 2.4 million drug injectors, China is estimated to have the world’s largest population of injecting drug users. In the Islamic Republic of Iran there are an estimated 70 000 to 300 000 injecting drug users, while in Pakistan the number ranges from 54 000 to 870 000.

Several countries have taken steps to introduce programmes to prevent new infections among injecting drug users. Indonesia revised its national AIDS strategy in 2007 to include harm reduction and a new ruling was issued by the judicial court, prioritizing drug rehabilitation over imprisonment of drug users. Harm reduction programmes have also been implemented in China and India.

Men who have sex with men in Asia face nearly one in five odds of being infected with HIV. High levels of HIV among men who have sex with men have been reported in Myanmar (29.3%), Bangkok (30.7%), Chongqing, China (12.5%), southern India (between 7.6% and 18.1%) and Indonesia (5.2%).
http://data.unaids.org/pub/FactSheet/2009/20091124_FS_asia_en.pdf

It means Bangladeshi in US has more chances to be infested with HIV than in India.
 
Haha the Indians here are going nuts to hide the fact that they have the most HIV infected dirty low moral people in the world. You guys really need to protect your women. :D

Sunny: Your post has been reported. Not all people have family members like yours - you just gotta realize that. Once again, truth hurts?:woot:

IBRIS and ambidex: What's the point dudes? The fact remains India has more AIDS infected people than all other South Asian countries combined and you guys pose a serious biological threat to these neighbors. I believe Pakistan, China and Bangladesh needs to take joint initiative on this matter and put pressure on the Indian government to issue AIDS-negative certificates to non-infected Indians. This should eventually be implemented as well for other diseases which have high prevalence in the immoral, poverty-stricken Indian society. :yahoo:
 

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