A total of 336 people has been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS in Chattogram over the past five years, while 51 have died from the virus. Statistics from the ART Centre at Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) show that between 2020 and 2025, the largest share of both infections and deaths occurred among migrant workers returning from abroad and their families.
Doctors say risky sexual behaviour while living overseas, failing to get tested upon returning home, and a lack of awareness are the main drivers of HIV transmission. According to CMCH’s ART Centre, from November 2020 to October 2025, the facility diagnosed 336 HIV-positive patients. During the same period, 51 patients died.
In 2020, 586 HIV tests were conducted through the ART Centre, identifying 30 new cases. From November 2021 to October 2022, 1,026 people were tested and 89 were found positive. Among the 58 people infected in 2023, 22 were migrant workers, accounting for 38% of that year’s total. The number of infections rose to 84 in 2024, before falling slightly to 75 in 2025.
The latest data show that in 2025 alone, 20 migrant workers were newly diagnosed with HIV. Additionally, 12 women were infected by their husbands, 26 cases came from the general population, 15 occurred through male-to-male intercourse, while one sex worker and one child were also diagnosed.
In 2023, 15 of the 27 deaths (55%) were migrant workers. There were 11 deaths in 2024 and 13 in 2025, most of them returnees from abroad or their family members. Doctors emphasise that inadequate knowledge about risky sexual behaviour abroad and insufficient pre-departure counselling increase both infection and mortality risks.
CMCH’s Head of Dermatology and Venereology, Dr Junaid Mahmud Khan, said, “Most of those who died this year sought treatment at the final stage. Had they come earlier, the outcome would have been different,” he said. Rohingya refugees are also among the infected and deceased.
National data show that 23 districts have been marked as high-risk, with Chattogram at the top of the list. While the United Nations estimates 13,200 AIDS patients nationwide, the DGHS ASP programme has 5,865 registered cases.
Among Chattogram’s 15 upazilas, the highest numbers of cases were reported in Hathazari, Fatikchhari, Raozan, Satkania and Sitakunda. Patients have also been identified in neighbouring districts including Cox’s Bazar, Feni, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Noakhali.
AIDS was first identified in the United States in 1981, and in Bangladesh in 1989. The first recorded death in the country occurred in 2000. AIDS spreads through three main routes: sexual contact between two people; shared or contaminated injections, including shared needles or blood transfusion; and from mother to child. If the mother is HIV-positive, transmission to the child is possible but the risk is very low; less than 1%, around 0.5%. Beyond these three routes, HIV has no other means of transmission.
On 27 July, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the world’s first HIV-prevention injection ‘Yaztugo’ or ‘Lenacapavir’, which can offer 99.99% protection with only two injections a year.
Lenacapavir works by targeting the capsid protein shell of the HIV-1 virus, which protects its genetic material and helps it enter human cells. Once inside, the capsid dissolves and the virus begins to replicate. Capsid inhibitors block this process and prevent the spread of infection.
