HIV campaign-Runa Laila

Nov 8, 2006

Bangladeshi celebrity couple joins UNAIDS campaign against HIV/AIDS<

By JULHAS ALAM=
Associated Press Writer=

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ A Bangladeshi celebrity couple joined hands with the U.N. AIDS agency Wednesday to campaign against HIV/AIDS, officials said.

Runa Laila, one of the country's leading singers, and her actor-husband Alamgir Hossain signed an agreement with UNAIDS to work as "spokespersons" for a year in the South Asian nation, where the prevalence of HIV-infected people is relatively low.

"I am extremely happy to have this opportunity," Laila, who is known beyond Bangladesh as a prolific singer in Bengali, Urdu and Hindi languages, told reporters at a press briefing. "This society has given me much, now it's my turn."

Hossain, who is principally a film actor, said the couple would work hard to raise AIDS awareness among young people, who are increasingly vulnerable to the disease due to lack of information and low awareness of the risk factors, a UNAIDS statement said.

In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, a nation of 144 million people, an estimated 13,000 people are HIV-infected. People in the conservative society are reluctant to talk about sex and sexually transmitted diseases in families or schools.

The infection rate among intravenous drug users is above 4 percent, while it is only about 1 percent among sex workers, according to Health Ministry statistics.

But experts are concerned that the disease could spread from next-door India. With 5.7 million infections, India has the world's largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. But India's population of more than 1.2 billion means the prevalence rate remains low.