Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 69 Wed. August 04, 2004  
   
Letters to Editor


AIDS-- a danger to human race


AIDS totally destroys the human body's protective mechanism. Still now there is no effective treatment for AIDS but there are some drugs (Zedovudin, Lavudin etc) that are somewhat effective at a very early stage. AIDS virus can stay in blood for two to ten years without any symptoms. So it may remain unknown to the victim. The common symptoms of AIDS are headache, reduced body weight, throat pain, continued fever, pneumonia, skin infection, fatigue, cancer etc.

Statistics show that there was a single AIDS patient in Bangladesh in 1989 but in 2004 the number is about 250. And the number of AIDS carriers is about 21,000.

AIDS is disseminated through unsafe sexual contamination, injection syringe, blood transmission etc. In our country, normally blood is donated by professional blood donors, but it is risky. In rural areas disposable syringes are not widely used; they use conventional syringes that may be a potential source for AIDS transmission.

AIDS is not only harmful to a single AIDS patient, but it also endangers the whole community.