HIV cases are rising in Kishoreganj district. Between January and August this year, eight people tested positive for the virus. All of them are men, aged between 20 and 30. The figures come from a report by Bandhu Welfare Society, a non-government organisation working on HIV detection among marginalised and at-risk populations. It said a total of 25 people in the district have tested positive for HIV over the past six years and eight months.
Saidur Rahman joined as Kishoreganj’s civil surgeon on September 10. Presented with the district’s HIV figures, he said the information is concerning and that the relevant programmes and the number of tests need to be scaled up. He said he would draw attention to this at the central level regarding what steps should be taken.
Bandhu Welfare Society has two offices in Kishoreganj district and has been working there since 2010. Of the district’s 13 upazilas, six fall under its Bhairab office and seven under its Kishoreganj office. According to the organisation’s report, no one in Kishoreganj district tested positive for HIV between 2010 and 2020. Over the following six years and eight months, at least 1,500 samples were tested, of which 25 were found HIV-positive. Most of those tested were vehicle drivers, hawkers and people with substance addiction. Of the 25 HIV-positive cases, 22 fall under the Bhairab office and three under the Kishoreganj office. Of this year’s eight cases, five were detected in upazilas under the Bhairab office and three under the Kishoreganj office. They are being treated at designated hospitals under government management.
An official at Bandhu Welfare Society’s Bhairab office said two of the 25 have gone outside the treatment system; it was later learned they had gone abroad. The rest are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), a treatment method used to control HIV infection. All those affected have been advised to remain cautious around blood transfusion.
Bhairab upazila health complex’s health and family planning officer, Kishore Kumar Dhar, said he had signed Bandhu Welfare Society’s report, and it was through that report that he himself learned of the HIV figures for Kishoreganj. The health officer advised everyone to live according to religious discipline rather than panicking.
According to data from the Directorate General of Health Services’ National AIDS/STD Control Programme, 1,891 people were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in Bangladesh in 2025 (December 2024 to November 2025). During the same period, 219 people died of AIDS in the country.