The HIV/Aids issue should be included extensively in school and college curriculum in order to create awareness among the students about the deadly disease, said the speakers at a workshop in the city yesterday.

They said the teachers, parents and religious leaders should be included in the awareness campaign and they have to be trained up on HIV/Aids issues.

The three-day workshop on 'Strengthening the education sector's response to HIV/Aids in Bangladesh' was organised by Bangladesh Aids

Prevention Society at a city hotel.

Education Secretary Faruk Ahmed Siddiqui attended the workshop as chief guest while UNESCO Representative in Bangladesh Wolfgang Vollmann chaired the inaugural session.

The education secretary said a draft curriculum on HIV/Aids has already been prepared and his ministry is now scrutinising it.

He said there should be an inter-ministerial programme on HIV/Aids as the dissemination of knowledge about HIV/Aids is very important.

Dr M Mustafa Kamal, a former consultant on HIV/Aids programme of World Health Organisation and A N

M Bazlur Rahman, secretary of Bangladesh National Commission for Unesco, presented two papers on HIV/Aids situation in Bangladesh.

Later, four technical sessions were held on the papers.

According to government statistics, the total number of HIV positives in Bangladesh is now 363, but unofficially it is much more. According to UNAIDS, about 13,000 people are living with HIV positives in the country.

Drug users, migrant workers, male and female sex workers, professional blood donors and hermaphrodites are most vulnerable to Aids.