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Mohammad Khairul Alam
The human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) continues to spread around the world. As per the estimates of United
Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 39.5 million people were living with HIV in
2006. In this year 4.3 million were newly infected, it has turned a serious
global epidemic, virtually all of them in poor or developing countries. The
disease has been most devastating in Africa. In some African
region over 20% of the population is infected. The epidemic is growing most
rapidly among some individual localities, communities, ethnic groups, tribal
groups or subpopulations and poor populations. While the spread of HIV/AIDS in
Asia has not been as rapid as in Africa we in Asia must not be complacent about
the disease. An estimated 8.6 million people were living with HIV in Asia.
Some countries in Asia
already have critically high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates and the disease is
beginning to get a foothold in some other countries. China and India account for
the predominant share of total known cases of infection in the region.
Approximately 5.7 million Indian people were living with HIV in 2005, and near
about 1.1 million were living with HIV in China at the end of 2005. Cambodia and
Myanmar have rates approaching 2 percent of the population. Serious epidemic
among men who have sex with man(MSM) are being uncovered in Cambodia,
China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Viet Nam. Already more than one
million people have died in this region from HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS is a disease that
is not easy to catch. Infections are largely passed on during risky or
unprotected sex, either between a man and a woman or a man and a man (MSM).
Injecting drug users (IDUs) transmit the virus if they share infected needle
and, although it was once a problem, blood transfusions are now screened to make
sure they do not contain the virus. Transmission in saliva is virtually
impossible. The virus can cross the placenta in HIV positive pregnant mothers
but medicines are available that can reduce the chance of the baby being born
HIV positive.
 The scenario of rural areas
in Bangladesh, major
population in here depends on agriculture. Since agriculture mostly depends on
uncertain monsoon, economic condition of people in general is poor. Lack of
non-farm sector activities, high incidence of poverty, lack of employment
opportunity and subsequent economic pressure promotes out migration in search of
livelihoods. Day-labour migration at large-scale, particularly to different
areas of Bangladesh, would contribute to their risk and vulnerability to several
STDs or HIV.
The reason of
accessibility, injecting/ intravenous drug users and the number of new injectors
are increasing all area in Bangladesh. Injecting drug
users are not isolated from our society; some of them have sexual partner, some
of them sell or buy sex from others, they sell blood. In addition, about 13% of
sex workers reported having injecting drugs. This round linkage can potentially
spread the epidemic widely to the general population.
Recently, ‘Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallan Foundation’ response to HIV/AIDS has focused mostly on three types
of work: community mobilization for prevention through the promotion of
fidelity, condom-use and abstinence; advocacy on access to affordable
treatments, targeted at medicine producers and international donor
organizations; and work to ‘mainstream’ support to AIDS-affected individuals and
communities into poverty mitigation work. HIV/AIDS has good relation between
poverty and gender inequality. Without decline gender discrimination, poverty,
all effort will destroy to prevent HIV/AIDS or sustainable development of this
sector.
tag: female, male,
commercial, floating, street, sex workers, aids, hiv, csws, idus, fsws, girls,
women, consensual, premarital, exmarital, sexuality, empowerment, gender,
education, prevention, dhaka, india, pakistan, bangladesh, adolescent, teen,
teenage, truck drivers. trafficking, epidemic, street girls, knowledge, young
people, discrimination, nonconsensual, coerced sex, sexual partners, safe sex,
sexually transmitted diseases, stds, stis, sexual abuse, forced sex, risky
sexual behaviour, business, multi partner sex, heterosexual, injection,
intravenous drugs users,
prostitution,
men who have sex with men, msm, harassment, sugar daddies, relationships,
condom, polygamy, homosexuality, extra marital, relations, truckers, migrant
workers, gay, hijras, hermaphrodites, professional blood donors, heroin smokers,
hotel, brothel, street based commercial sex workers, casual sex workers, so
called sex workers, violence, exploitation, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan
Foundation, Mohammad Khairul Alam
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