The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) is going to introduce a free health service for HIV/AIDS patients in the public hospitals starting on January 1, 2014. Five medical college-hospitals in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet and Rajshahi would be brought under the scheme primarily with the others to follow suit, officials said.
The ministry may sign an agreement with three NGOs any day soon, which will be responsible for monitoring and supervising the service. The organisations are Ashar Alo Society, Mukto Akash and CAAP (Confidential Approach to Aids Prevention).
However, several top officials of the NGOs said the initiative may not have likely effects because of the ministry’s lack of preparation in this regard.
For one, they argued, the doctors, nurses and supporting staff of the hospitals should be given special training before introducing the service, so that they can provide proper health care to people living with HIV (PLWHIV). For another, lack of adequate machinery and equipment.
It has been learnt that the ministry had bought eight modern “CD-4 Cell Machines” – necessary for HIV positive patients – for different public hospitals about four years ago, but only four of them have remained functional because of the scarcity of reagents.
But MM Niazuddin, secretary of MOHFW, is hopeful they can ensure quality health service for the HIV patients.
“They are many challenges to overcome, the most important one being the social stigma attached to those contacting HV. They continue to face discrimination even though 24 years had lapsed since the first HIV positive case was detected in the country. But we are hopeful we can ensure quality service for them,” he said.
He was speaking at a press conference at the Secretariat on the eve of the World AIDS Day-2013, which will be observed on December 1 with the theme “Getting to Zero”. However, the newly appointed Health Minister Rowshan Ershad was conspicuously absent from the conference although she was scheduled to be there.
In his address, the health secretary said, “HIV/AIDS is just a disease and anyone suffering from a disease should not be seen as a criminal or pitied upon. They deserve to live like any normal citizens.” He stressed the need for increased awareness of the disease and removing disparity based on diseases.
Highlighting the overall scenario of the disease, he said HIV prevalence in the country was still low. Only 2,871 HIV-positive patients have been found in Bangladesh since 1989 when the first case of its kind was detected. Amongst them, 1,204 become AIDS patients and 390 of them died.
He also said Bangladesh had been selected as the organising country of the International Congress on Aids in Asia and the Specific (ICAAP), scheduled to be held in 2015. The latest data on HIV will be announced on the AIDS Day.