Important organisation names and contact details:

are undertaken and the other is how fast and effectively STDs are treated among the sex workers. In Thailand condom use at brothels is 100%. In India it varies in different states. In Bangladesh it is quite low.

Islam specifies another potential risk area that the government is overlooking. “There is a population living in the border area who thrive on smuggling,” he points out, “The activities of these smugglers is very difficult for people living in the city to understand. The female smugglers bribe the border police by selling their bodies. In fact they undergo physical contact with a lot of people in the process and then they come home and infect their husbands and they spread it to others. If this continues the infection in the area might reach epidemic proportions and we will not even know about it until a lot later.” Trafficked women also are at great risk of spreading the disease as most of them end up in brothels in India where prevention and controls programmes are not very well managed in all the states. “Care and support of PLHAs does not only mean providing ARV medicines,” says Islam, “They need psychological, nutritional and laboratory support. There needs to be a full laboratory set up to assess who needs ARV therapy and at what rate with regular follow ups. There should also be palliative (pain relieving) care for AIDS patients towards the end of their lives. It should be a very comprehensive plan. Unfortunately, there has not been any development in this sector in the last 20 years. We are still stuck with awareness-raising.”

Patients allege that nurses at the Infectious Diseases Hospital refuse to treat them, not even stretchers are spared for the very ill. Even that has not been successful. Islam points out that still now in many hospitals, nurses and ward boys avoid going near the AIDS patients. Many patients refuse to get admitted to hospitals because of the harassment they face from all sides, journalists come and start taking photographs and ask for interviews; patients from the nearby beds start objecting. “A patient does not get the peaceful sleep he/she needs so badly,” adds Islam and are generally made into objects of curiosity.

Ashar Alo Society, 8/1 Aurangazeb Road (2nd floor) Block A, Mohammadpur, Dhaka 1207, Ph: 9133968, 8159268