Troops to get HIV-awareness cards

July 10, 2005

SIDDHARTHA D. KASHYAP

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [FRIDAY, JULY 08, 2005 11:01:51 PM ]

PUNE: The Indian Army is in the process of printing pocket-

sized 'awareness cards'for its 1.3 million troops, providing

information about HIV/AIDS in Indian languages.

Similar to the ones given to UN peacekeeping forces, senior military

sources in the Directorate general of armed forces medical services

(DGAFMS) said the cards are an attempt to educate the defence

personnel to take universal precautions and stay protected from HIV

during the course of their duty.

The awareness cards are a result of a tripartite agreement signed in

April this year by the Ministry of defence (MoD) and the National

AIDS control organisation (Naco) with UNAIDS. As per the agreement,

the UN agency will assist the MoD and Naco to design and implement a

comprehensive AIDS prevention programme among army ranks, NCC cadets

and para-military personnel.

The programme will include awareness-raising initiatives; peer

education; and training and integration of HIV/AIDS and STD-related

issues into the curricula of military schools across the country.

" The idea is to bolster the existing efforts in preventing the

spread of the disease within the defence forces, " said a source from

the DGAFMS, adding that similar agreements have also been signed by

the UN agency with other countries, like Costa Rica, Dominican

Republic, Peru and Kazakhstan, to name a few. As a military

official, earlier involved in the Armed forces AIDS control

organisation (ACO), said, although the number of newly-infected ones

in the defence forces has reached a " plateau " in recent times,

troops still are a vulnerable lot because of their separation from

families for unnaturally long periods. Although the actual number of

HIV-infected in the defence forces has always been kept under wraps,

it is estimated that there are over 4,000 HIV/AIDS patients within

the forces. A report prepared by the ACO a couple of years back, had

revealed that out of the total cases reported, 81% belonged to the

army, 10% to the navy, 2% to the air force, and the remaining shared

by others within the defence establishment.

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