Defence signs pact with UNAIDS to battle HIV-AIDS

April 29, 2005

April 29, 03:17 PM

India signs pact with UNAIDS to battle HIV-AIDS in defence forces

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India signed a pact with the United Nations to

combat HIV infections among military personnel after defence

authorities sounded a health alert last week.

UNAIDS will assist the country's National AIDS Control Organization

(NACO) with designing and implementing an HIV-prevention programme

for about 1.3 million personnel in the Indian military and 535,000

paramilitary soldiers.

" It will help enhance the capacities of military health

professionals to effectively manage and deliver high-quality care as

well as decrease stigma and discrimination surrounding military

personnel living with HIV, " said a UNAIDS statement on Thursday.

Last week, Lieutenant General Bhopinder Singh, Director General of

the Assam Rifles, said more soldiers were killed by HIV/AIDS than

bullets in India's insurgency-hit northeast. He said HIV infections

among Indian troops were assuming " serious dimensions. "

" During peacetime military personnel are up to five times more

likely to contract sexually transmitted infections including HIV

than the civilian population. In times of conflict this risk can be

significantly higher, " UNAIDS said.

Ulf Kristoffersson, director of the UNAIDS office on AIDS who signed

the agreement with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, said " the

partnership " could serve as an example for other countries.

" India's commitment to confronting the epidemic at an early stage,

focusing on prevention and education of young men and women in

uniform, should stand as a lesson for militaries and governments in

the region and elsewhere, " said Kristoffersson.

According to official UN figures, India has the world's second

largest number of HIV-AIDS sufferers with 5.1 million people while

South Africa is just ahead with 5.3 million.

However, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

said last week that India had already overtaken South Africa, but

gave no figures. NACO has rejected the assertion.

Recommended Posts