MDG Report 2012 - United Nations in Bangladesh

7.1 IntroductionBangladesh has performed quite well in halting communicable diseases under MDG 6. Theavailable data show that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh currently is less than 0.1percent and thus is still below the epidemic level. There has been significant improvement inthe reduction of malarial deaths in the country over the years. Moreover, a couple ofindicators related to TB have already met the MDG targets. It may also be mentioned thatsome of the indicators are non-measurable in quantitative terms while, for several others, thebenchmarks are not available. In addition, several targets are defined in percentage termswhile others refer to absolute numbers.7.2 Progress of achievements in different targets and indicatorsTarget 6.A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDSIndicator 6.1: HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 yearsThe data of the 9 th round National HIV Serological Surveillance (SS) conducted in June 2011show that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh is currently less than 0.1 percent andthus still below an epidemic level. However, in Bangladesh, behavioural factors among mostat risk populations (MARPs), explored in several rounds of Behavioural Surveillance Survey(BSS) show a trend that could fuel the spread of HIV from MARPs to the general population.The findings of the 9 th round National HIV SS are very encouraging as these show that theoverall prevalence of HIV in populations most at risk remains below 1 percent and mostimportantly, HIV prevalence has declined among people who inject drugs in Dhaka from 7percent to 5.3 percent. Moreover, hepatitis C has also declined which is a marker for unsafeinjecting practices. Thus, the overall data suggest that the intervention programmes arehaving a positive effect. Still the most number of HIV positive people, irrespective ofpopulation groups, live in Dhaka despite the decline in the proportion of HIV positivesamong people who take drugs through injection. The first case of HIV/AIDS in Bangladeshwas detected in 1989. Since then 2,871 HIV positive cases have been identified; among them1,204 developed AIDS. Out of the total AIDS cases, 390 deaths have been recorded (as ofDecember 2012).The specific issues emerging from the 9 th round of SS highlight that both HIV and HCV rateshave declined in PWID in Dhaka suggesting that ongoing harm reduction programmes areeffective in preventing the spread of blood borne infections in Dhaka. Other than PWID,another vulnerable population group appears to be the Hijra community as HIV was detectedin the group from the locations where sampling was conducted. High rates of active syphilis(at >5%) was recorded in 10 cities amongst different population groups suggesting thepractice of unprotected sex. Geographically, Dhaka appears to be the most vulnerable as thisis where the most numbers of HIV positive individuals were detected. Border areasparticularly Hili and Benapole are also vulnerable as HIV has been detected in these locationsamong different groups and cross border mobility in Hili is very high.73