Bangladesh HIV/AIDS communication challenges and strategies

Bangladesh is in a precarious position in relation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Rates are currently low compared to the rest of the South Asian region, and the disease is relatively confined to small, high-risk populations--mainly injection drug users (IDUs) and commercial sex workers. Yet if steps are not taken quickly to keep the epidemic in check, it could easily spread to the general population as it has in other countries nearby. This would both increase the negative impact of HIV/AIDS and make it much harder to target for containment. It is therefore imperative that healthy behavior be promoted among IDUs and sex users, not only for their own health, but for the health of the country. Prevention will be the key to halting the spread of HIV infection through the implementation of communication and education programs aimed to change high-risk behavior. However, the disparate number of HIV/AIDS prevention programs independently operating in Bangladesh combined with the difficulty in adequately targeting this unique population of IDUs and sex workers establishes a complex situation where attaining behavior change is extremely difficult. This paper proposes adoption of the FOMENT model to design a health communication campaign targeting the high-risk populations in Bangladesh.