People who inject drugs in Bangladesh – the untold burden!

The rates of both HIV and HCV are exploding among the People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) subpopulation in the People ’s Republic of Bangladesh. 5,586 HIV confirmed cases have been reported since the first case of HIV was identified in 1989, of which, 865 new cases (15.5%) have been reported in the year 2017 alone. Among the new cases, 330 (38.2%) were from PWID population. The HCV prevalence is also high in Dhak a, with 40% of the PWID with unknown HIV status and 60.7% co-infected with HIV. The predominant HIV-1 strains circulating in the population are subtype C (41.4%) followed by CRF07 BC (24.2%), CRF01 AE (9.1), A1 (6.6%), and B (2.5%).

Source: International Journal of Infectious Diseases - March 26, 2019 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Sharful I. Khan, Reza Md Masud, Suzanne M. Crowe, Mustafizur Rahman, Margaret Hellard, Md Safiullah Sarker, Ezazul Islam Chowdhury, AKM Masud Rana, Rachel Sacks-Davis, Sayera Banu, Allen G. Ross Tags: Review Source Type: research