Volunteers of different NGOs in Bangladesh working in the field of prevention and control of AIDS would be trained by a Chennai-based AIDS Research Centre.
Dr. Md. Akram Hossain, a member of the nine-member UNDP team from Bangladesh which visited Chennai recently told reporters that "YRG Care" in Chennai would train Bangla-deshi NGOs on the various types of care programmes offered by them.
The team, comprising four doctors and five administrators, visited YRG Care to study the types of opportunistic infections and their diagnosis, home care of HIV positive people and management of HIV/AIDS. Four such teams had been constituted to visit India and Thailand to study AIDS control programmes and gain experience, Dr. Hossain said.
He said the team would coordinate strategies for the replication of simi-lar care programmes in Bangladesh under Bangladesh AIDS Prevention and Control Programme, a project to be launched in July.
To be funded jointly by the Bangla-desh government and UNAIDS, the project would be implemented through NGOs. About 72 NGOs were involved in the project. A coordinating body called STD and AIDS Network had already been formed.
He said during the visit to Chennai the team had spent time with HIV-infected patients and the educators at YRG Care, learning strategies to prevent HIV infection and the art of pre and post-test counselling.
Dr. Hossain said at present Bangladesh had 95 HIV positive persons and 11 AIDS cases. Most of the infected persons were overseas workers. Considering that truck drivers were another vulnerable target, a project focussing on the behaviour of truck drivers was also on the anvil. A sample survey was conducted in December in which 10,000 blood samples were collected from different vulnerable pockets in Bangladesh. The results of the tests would be known in March.
Dr. Suniti Solomon, Director YRG Care, said a similar team from Maharashtra would visit YRG Care soon.?