The government’s policy of preventing government hospitals from providing anti-viral drugs to people infected with the HIV virus has been heavily criticised by physicians and health activists.
They are also critical of the continued discrimination that HIV positive patients face when they try to get normal medical care from government hospitals.
At present all anti-viral medication is provided by three non-governmental bodies — Ashar Alo Society, Mukto Akash Bangladesh and CAAP, which are funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
While these physicians and health activists, expressing their opinions a few days before the World AIDs Day, did not criticise these non-governmental bodies, they thought that it was important for government hospitals to develop the capacity to provide these drugs so that the patients do have to rely only on the NGOs alone.
Rashid-e-Mahbub, former president of the Bangladesh Medical Association, said that the government should ‘set up separate units within government hospitals for the treatment of HIV positive patients’. He added that they also needed to increase awareness of AIDS in the hospitals.
Nazrul Islam, former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, was also critical of the government for ‘not being directly involved in providing treatment to HIV or AIDS patients’.
Although there is a government hospital dedicated to infectious diseases, HIV positive patients do not seek treatment from it.
Nazrul also criticised the discrimination faced by HIV patients when they seek ordinary medical treatment from government hospitals and clinics.
‘It is common for HIV patients to be denied treatment at most hospitals including government ones,’ he said.
A study undertaken by the James P Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in 2009 found that a majority of the 238 HIV positive interviewees faced discrimination when seeking treatment from government hospitals or local clinics.
The study found that as a result of the discriminatory treatment about 17 per cent of HIV patients did not go to hospitals for medicines and treatment of various ailments.
Mukti, the executive director of Mukto Akash Bangladesh, said that a few months ago the organisation had sent an HIV positive patient with heart ailment to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, but the hospital refused to admit him.
Nazrul Islam told New Age that an initiative was taken for HIV positive woman to obtain gynaecological treatment at BSMMU, but the move was blocked by some high government officials.
Health secretary M Humayun Kabir acknowledged that there were examples of government hospitals denying treatment to HIV patients, but said, ‘We cannot ask the hospitals to receive HIV/AIDS patients if they think the precautionary measures in the hospitals are not sufficient.’
In response, Nazrul said that the government should therefore set up proper procedures so that the patients can be treated safely without any risk of spreading the virus.
Drug addicts have the highest risk of becoming HIV positive. A recent study found that over 10 per cent of them living in urban areas were infected with the virus, compared to less than 1 per cent of the whole population.
‘Where any disease affects more than 5 per cent of the people in a specific group, it is considered that there is a “concentrated epidemic” in that group,’ he said. ‘So there is no excuse to ignore the disease.’
Another group that is prone to becoming infected with the HIV virus is emigrant workers, said experts.
Health activists argued that before workers leave the country, the government should provide them information on how they can avoid infection.
They also criticised the health ministry for frequently transferring the person in charge of the government’s HIV programme, which prevents the government’s work in this area from being undertaken properly.
