Munir Ahmed, M.D., a 2008–2009 NIDA Hubert H. Humphrey Drug Abuse Research Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University, is now officer in charge for the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dr. Ahmed started the country’s first methadone maintenance treatment program and directs efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination against drug users. During 2012, a pilot methadone program in government health care settings will be replicated with nongovernmental organizations. Dr. Ahmed reports that HIV prevalence among Bangladeshi injection drug users has been 5.3 percent for about a decade.