DHAKA: Shayma, 35, left the border district of Shatkhira for Mumbai after marrying Rafiqul when she was only 13. But on her seventh day in India she was forced into prostitution. A decade later, in 2010, she returned to Bangladesh with her six years old son, Amit, thanks to an Indian NGO which rescued them from a brothel. But she was severely ill - some parts of her body afflicted by gangrene.
 
As her illness worsened, doctors advised her and Amit to undergo an HIV test. After the primary test, the hospital’s HIV service councilor Shima Rani Mandol sent their blood sample to Khulna. The tests confirmed that mother and son were infected by HIV.  
 
Shima Rani Mandol told banglanews that Shyama and Amit are among the increasing number of HIV-infected patients she came across in 2013.
 
Director, Disease Control and Line Director, CDC, DGHS, Professor Be-Nazir Ahmed expressed concern at the growing incidence of HIV infections in districts like Satkhira and Jessore bordering India. In July 2013 alone, as many as 25 HIV-infected patients were counselled in the two border districts.
 
Baten, a 46-year-old HIV positive patient in Satkhira has three wives. One of them was in the flesh trade in India and infected Baten. There are many instances of many poor Bangladeshi women from the two districts being sucked into prostitution rackets in Mumbai and Pune, getting infected by HIV and returning to Bangladesh to infect others. It`s a vicious circle with no solution in sight.
 
Shima Rani said that there are arrangements for treatment of HIV-infected persons in India. But there are hundreds of such patients in Satkhira too.
 
Prostitution, it seems, is not the only source of infection. In both India and Bangladesh, sexual relations between infected men is leading to the spread of Aids. Such cases have come to light in Satkhira and Jhenidah. The women who are smuggled or migrate to India in search of livelihood often return infected by HIV, although they are not hooked to injection drugs, said Shima Rani.
 
Studies show that male seasonal migrants sneaking into India in search of work get infected by prostitutes in India.  But it`s Bangladeshi women who are the most vulnerable. Sex-worker Munira,  an inhabitant of Jessore, returned to the country from India last year.  She told this reporter that women and children accounted for the majority of Bangladeshis trafficked into India. Indian cities and towns which attract a lot of tourists invariably have redlight areas which require a steady flow of sex workers. Poor Bangladeshi women meet the demand risking their lives. They frequently succumb to the temptation of unprotected sex for more money which they need to bring up their children.
 
Munira said: "Women from Jessore, Satkhira and Jhenidah are active in the sex industry across the border. Though several NGOs are active in the redlight areas of Mumbai and other cities, Bangladeshi women generally avoid them because they fear that they would get deported, although these NGOs concentrate on saving prostitutes from HIV and rehabilitating them if necessary."
 
Ashit Banerjee, Programme coordinator of NGO Aggragati Sangstha at Shatkhira, told banglanews that Mumbai and Pune are the biggest magnets for Bangladeshi women.
 
"HIV is spreading in Bangladesh primarily through women engaged in India`s sex industry which attracts poor women from neighbouring countries. Many Indian traffickers illegally entering Bangladesh to procure women are themselves infected."
 
Md Nazrul Islam, a virus specialist and former vice-chancellor Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told banglanews that everyone should be told about HIV and Aids before leaving the country.   
 
He added that organisations working among HIV-infected persons and high-risk groups should be closely monitored for the best results.  
 
The total number of new HIV infected patients is 370 in 2013. Amongst them 95 are infected and 82 have died, according to The HIV Report of health ministry, December, 2013.
 
In 2012 there were 338 infected patients. Among them 65 patients died.
 
The total number of HIV patients in Bangladesh is 30,241. Specialists say that the growing number of deaths are a cause for deep concern.

BDST: 1618 HRS, JAN 17, 2014
Edited by: Rubaiat Saky, Senior Newsroom Editor