Mohammed Abul Kalam
Mohammed Abul Kalam, PhD, MA, MSc, MPH, PG Diploma, MSS, is the Chief Research & Development Officer of Quick Health Service Center (QHSC), Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He leads teams of researchers working in the field of behavioral and social sciences interacting with health and diseases (e.g., communicable and non-communicable diseases, Sero- and behavioral surveillance of STD/HIV/AIDS/HCV, public health surveillance, drug abuse, disease outbreak investigation…). He supervises the thesis and dissertation as an external examiner. He is a prolific writer and published more than 217 scientific articles, essays, monographs, & study reports on health, population & development from home & abroad. He regularly contributes articles in the national English dailies on health, population, climate change, development & contemporary issues (published 389 articles so far).
Before joining this present organization (Quick Health Service Center), he worked as Director (Research & Development) at Siam Health Care, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 2013 to 2019. He also served as Founding Head of, the Department of Medical Sociology at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR), Dhaka, Bangladesh under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare from May 1993 to December 2012. IEDCR is an apex public health institute of the Government of Bangladesh, and Dr. Kalam discharged responsibilities in public health matters–public health, epidemiology, research ethics, harm reduction, research, teaching, disaster management, general management functions…
Session
Background: People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) frequently engage in high-risk behaviors exposing them to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Hepatitis B (HCB) & Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in Bangladesh.
Objective: This exploratory study aimed to investigate and focus on profiling the socioeconomic, drug use, risk, practice, and blood-borne virus testing results of participants who had or had not used the needle syringe exchange program.
Methods: The study was conducted from July 2022 to December 2023 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It involved reviewing official orders/statements issued by the government, face-to-face interviews with 685 PWIDs (18-49 years old), 23 service providers, and 24 key informants, and a one-day negotiation workshop with 40 participants representing both PWIDs and service providers.
Results and implications: Among 685 participants, 362 participants (53%) chose opioids as their primary drug and 323 participants (47%) chose stimulants. Overall, the sample was mostly male, identified as heterosexual 78%, just under secondary school certificate 50%, and 40% indicated that they were employed. Participants who had never used NSP reported a shorter mean duration of injecting than those who had ever used NSP. Over 80% of the total sample reported having been tested for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, or HIV. Hepatitis-C-positive status was reported by 48% of the sample, whereas 10 percent reported being positive for hepatitis B and 1.8% for HIV. The government should expand coverage of the high-quality NSP and strengthen prevention efforts through vaccination, safe infection and injection practices, and education.