NOVEMBER 2005 – The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) of the Government of Bangladesh recently honored Family Health International for its efforts to build awareness about the risks of injection drug use. Through its Tripartite Project, FHI provided technical assistance to the DNC to address drug abuse and HIV transmission and produced an interactive flip chart to educate young people about the problem.

"The way FHI supported the DNC and NGOs to prevent drug abuse and HIV is noteworthy, and we would like to formally recognize it," said Dr. Kamaluddin Ahmed, director general of the DNC. The DNC awarded Tara O'Day, FHI's acting country director in Bangladesh, a certificate and a placard.

FHI/Bangladesh plans to expand the Tripartite Project, a collaboration involving the police, prisons and community-based organizations, to improve the response to injection drug use in urban slums. The project's strategic emphasis on public education and demand reduction represents a new approach in Bangladesh, where anti-drug efforts traditionally focus on interdiction and arrest of offenders, and few facilities exist for treatment and rehabilitation.

While HIV prevalence in Bangladesh is still considered low within the general population, it is increasing rapidly among the country's injection drug users (IDUs), who often share contaminated needles. In 2004, HIV prevalence was as high as 8.9 percent among IDUs in certain parts of Dhaka.
FHI/Bangladesh's activities in risk reduction for IDUs are part of the Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care (IMPACT) Project, which is funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the U.S. Agency for International Development.