Roundtable stresses bigger media role to prevent epidemic
A significant number of young people in Bangladesh are vulnerable to HIV infection, as they are not getting proper information on how to prevent the disease, experts said.
Blaming the absence of proper information dissemination process, they said the youth are engaging in risky behaviours like unsafe intercourse and certain drug abuse that pose a threat of spreading HIV.
The opinions came up at a roundtable on ‘Strategic Information and HIV Prevention Among Adolescents’ organised jointly by The Daily Star and the UNFPA at The Daily Star’s conference room yesterday.
The discussants said media could play a crucial role in filling the information gap and make the young people aware of how the deadly virus is transmitted.
They stressed the need for public-private partnership, linkage between formal and informal sectors, central and local governments, modern and folk media working together to combat the HIV threat. The opinion of the young people should be considered while formulating HIV prevention policies and strategies, they observed.
“We need to make sure that the epidemic will not spread,” said UNFPA’s Country Representative Arthur Erken.
Even after the inclusion of HIV/AIDS issue in textbooks, the teachers and parents often feel embarrassed to discuss it with adolescents, Erken said.
“Here comes the role of media, which can inform and educate people of all classes regarding the fatal infection,” he added.
The UNFPA representative, who moderated the session, also said the enormous power of social media like facebook could be used in disseminating information and that can be managed by the youths themselves.
The message ‘use condoms’ does not work much. The use of condoms should be considered as part of a healthy lifestyle. If condoms are sold from a lifestyle perspective, it will be more attractive and the message would be more positive, he said.
Nizamuddin Ahmed of Save the Children, USA, said 25 percent of 160 million people in Bangladesh are aged between 15 and 24 years and a significant number of them do not go to any educational institutions.
So programmes should be extended beyond the educational institutions, he added.
Quoting a study, he said around 90 percent of young people know about HIV/AIDS but 25 percent of them do not know how it spreads, he said.
Only 1.2 percent believe that they are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.
The study was conducted on 12,000 young people of the country, he said.
Criticising programmes on HIV/AIDS, he said most of the programmes halted midway due to fund crisis, management problems and other reasons.
“The average age of Bangladeshi children entering sex trade is 13 years… So they are badly in need of right information and right services,” said Bridget Johnson, HIV/AIDS specialist of Unicef Bangladesh.
Tasnim Azim, head of HIV programme of ICDDR’B, said, “We need to think how to integrate the HIV/AIDS with other issues.”
Lack of youth-friendly health service centres and supportive and safe environment were blamed for making the youth vulnerable.
They suggested conducting an in-depth study on school curriculum and to revise them.
Khandaker Ezazul Haque, HIV officer of the UNFPA Bangladesh, presented the keynote paper.
Hashina Begum, assistant representative of UNFPA Bangladesh, Hasan Mahmud, deputy programme manager of National Aids and Strategic Plan (NASP), Salil Panakadan, UNAIDS country director, Kazi Ali Reza of United Nations Information Centre, Nazneen Akhter, executive director of HASAB, Somir Kumar Hawlader of International Organisation of Migration (IOM), Shale Ahmed of Bandhu Social Welfare Society, Hasnain Sabih Nayak of Independent University Bangladesh, Misti McDowell of Family Health International (FHI) and two youth representatives also spoke on the occasion.
