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AIDS menace

20 July 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Md. Shafiquee, Tangail
20 July 2004, 18:00 PM
AIDS stands for Acute Immune Deficiency Syndrome which causes havoc on the human immunity system, utterly destroys it and leads its victims to sure death. The first case was detected in the US in 1981. From then on the whole world is combating it. The global AIDS situation is very grim. A large proportion of our total world population are affected by this deadly disease. Half of them are women and helpless children. It was mostly witnessed in the western countries till it spread through Asia. It is the result of free sex and drug abuse.

Man only carries the virus and usually transmits it through sexual contacts, through unprotected sex and multiple sex partners, and through mixture of AIDS infected blood in various ways . Children may contract it from their infected mother. They contract the virus during pregnancy delivery or breast feeding periods. A study proved that 80% of the total AIDS cases have spread through sexual contacts. In India, the total number of victims is more than 40 lakh, whereas in China it is more than 50 lakh.

In Bangladesh, according to the estimate of WHO, there are 15,000 HIV infected people. That is a great threat to our future generation.

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It must be stopped at any cost. In this regard the media and religious preachers can play a vital role by increasing awareness among the people.