DHAKA, Dec 2 (AFP) - In their first ever meeting with people living with HIV/AIDS, Bangladeshi lawmakers Tuesday listened to harrowing personal accounts and pledged to work to remove the disease's social stigma in the Muslim-majority country.
A 30-year-old woman told lawmakers, including Deputy Parliament Speaker Akhter Hamid Siddiqui, she was infected by her husband who contracted the disease while working abroad.
"Until he died I did not even know he had the disease," she said.
"Once people came to know that my husband had AIDS, my seven-year-old daughter was thrown out from school. Now we have to hide my disease just so we can survive."
After the meeting, she told AFP she was thrilled that the MPs were finally listening to HIV/AIDS patients.
"This is the first time I have entered the parliament building and it gives me hope that policymakers have started to think about us," she said.
Several other HIV-positive men and women spoke of the stigma they faced.
"I was ill for some time and once it was discovered that I was HIV positive I was thrown out of my government job," said a man in his 20s, breaking down as he spoke.
"I have a family to support and I don't know how to go on," he said.
A woman told the meeting: "I am slowly getting symptoms that show my condition is deteriorating... but treatment is so expensive. I want help for other people like me."
Siddiqui, who heads a newly created parliamentary group focused on HIV/AIDS, said he was moved to hear first-hand the experiences of people living with the disease.
"I am pained and I want to say that lawmakers from all political parties are in this group, which means we are determined to do something for people suffering from HIV/AIDS," he said.
Siddiqui pledged to launch an awareness campaign to reduce the stigmatisation of sufferers and said steps were already under way to ensure cheaper medication.
"We have to break the notion that AIDS is contagious like the common cold," he said.
Bushra Binte Alam of the United Nations Population Fund told AFP that Beximco Pharmaceuticals was producing a five-medicine treatment for HIV-infected people in Bangladesh.
"The medicine costs 8,500 taka (147 dollars) monthly for each patient, which is quite expensive in the context of Bangladesh," she said.
Although Bangladesh has only 363 registered AIDS patients, 115 of those were reported in the past 12 months, a rise of nearly 50 per cent, according to latest figures.
At least 27 Bangladeshis have full-blown AIDS while 30 have already died of the disease.
Army Major General Matiur Rahman, an expert on HIV/AIDS, said medical treatment for the country's registered patients could be provided if MPs came up with a plan to bring down the cost.
Nazrul Islam, executive director of Media for People, one of the meeting's organisers, added: "Our objective is to initiate a debate in the parliament on the issue... We hope to be successful."
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