Dhaka seeks greater int'l support to fight Aids

Although the number of HIV cases in Bangladesh is very low, the country is at higher risk of epidemic due to its geographic location and high risk behaviour by the sex workers and intravenous drug users (IDU), they said at a special session of the 15th International Aids Conference.

The delegation urged the developed nations and the global fund to help ensure treatment facilities and cheap drugs for the HIV/Aids patients.

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"We are in a vulnerable stage because of HIV epidemic in neighbouring India, Myanmar and Nepal," said Zahiruddin Swapan, who is representing the deputy speaker of the parliament in the conference.

Swapan, also the secretary general of the Parliamentary Caucus on HIV/Aids and Trafficking, said the geographic location along with human movement through a long porous borders of over 4,000 km with India and around 288 km with Myanmar has posed a serious threat for HIV epidemic in conservative Bangladesh.

"The present situation demands massive awareness and preventive programmes because of high risk behaviour by the sex workers, truckers and IDUs," he said.

The government, he said, has taken some steps to prevent HIV, but the resource constraints and illiteracy have emerged as major obstacles to doing so.

Opposition Whip Faruque Khan said there was a report of 363 HIV positive cases in Bangladesh, but unofficially the number would be around 13,000. "So there is no room for complacency. It is time to act, and save hundreds from the catastrophe."