According to a new report cosponsored by the National AIDS and STD Program, more than 7 percent of injection drug users in the capital city, Dhaka, have tested positive for HIV, along with nearly 5 percent of IDUs elsewhere in Bangladesh. The survey said that while female IDUs showed a zero prevalence rate, 44 percent of them were sex workers, and 82 percent shared syringes with male IDUs. Countrywide, syphilis rates for IDU populations ranged from zero to over 9 percent. While the government recorded just 44 AIDS deaths from 1989 through 2001, the UN said the actual figure for the period was 650. Bangladesh shares porous borders with India and Myanmar, both of which are experiencing AIDS epidemics.

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