DHAKA, Feb 7 (AFP) - School pupils in Muslim majority Bangladesh will learn about HIV/AIDS for the first time from next year when the subject is added to the curriculum, officials said Monday.
Bangladesh has reported a relatively low number of cases, but campaigners have warned that the conservative country is vulnerable due to low awareness about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
"We've decided to introduce life skills education in our secondary schools and there will be a full chapter on HIV and AIDS in the upcoming curriculum," said Ashabur Rahman, additional secretary at the education ministry.
A chapter on AIDS would be drafted with the help of the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, he added.
"The decision was taken because the number of AIDS cases appears to be rising and adolescents in Bangladesh are very ignorant about sexually transmitted diseases," added Hannana Begum, head of the country's curriculum and textbook board.
A recent survey found that only 20 percent of married women and 33 percent of married men had heard of the virus.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS put the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Bangladesh in 2002 at around 13,000 out of a population of 140 million.
A UN funded study last year, however, found a more than three-fold rise in the number of infected drug users over the past six years prompting fears about the spread of the disease.
Bangladesh shares a long porous border with India, which has the world's second largest number of people carrying HIV after South Africa.
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