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The Financial Express

HIV-infected Bangladeshis in a year reach 865, total 5586

| Updated: December 06, 2017 11:42:19


Representational image of HIV virus Representational image of HIV virus

A total of 865 people in the country were infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in last one year.

With the new count, the total number of HIV infected people in the country is over 5,000.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim disclosed the fact on Monday while briefing newsmen at health ministry in secretariat in Dhaka.

"A total of 77,725 people were diagnosed, of those 865 found with HIV positive, during the test beginning from November 2016 to October 2017," he revealed.

He said of them 639 are Bangladeshi men, 213 women, 13 transgender and 63 Rohingya refugees.

The total number of HIV positive in the country is 5,586 detected from 1989 to 2017," he added.

As per a BSS report, the minister said the HIV infection rate in Bangladesh is below 0.01 while one per cent people are at the risk of the virus.

The World AIDS Day is observed on December 1 every year to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.

This year's theme of the day was "Right to Health".

The Ministry of Health and different NGOs have taken elaborate programmes across the country to observe the day in our country on December 6 formally.

The ministry has doubled the fund to prevent the HIV escalation where the donor agencies decreased its' helps than before," the health minister said.

The ministry has also launched massive motivational campaign among the Rohingyas and providing them with kits containing birth control pills and other contraceptives, he said.

The authorities concerned are taking measures to prevent outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) as some of them found with HIV positive, he added.

A total of 2483 HIV positive patients have been receiving treatments from six government hospitals free of cost, said Nasim.

 

  

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