Condoms for soldiers battling northeast rebels

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Condoms for soldiers battling northeast rebels

Aug. 31, 2005

Defence authorities have asked soldiers battling violent separatist insurgencies

in India's troubled northeast to carry condoms to revent contracting HIV, the

virus that causes AIDS. ''We have instructed our men to carry stocks of condoms

to prevent contracting

HIV-AIDS while working in vulnerable areas,'' Vice Admiral V.K. Singh, director

general of the Armed Forces Medical Services, told

soldiers at an army cantonment in the Meghalaya state capital Shillong Tuesday.

An estimated 100,000 army and paramilitary troopers are deployed in the rugged

jungles of the northeast against some 30 guerrilla groups waging insurgencies

for independent homelands or greater autonomy.

The directive to carry condoms comes after army and paramilitary authorities in

the northeast confirmed that scores of soldiers deployed in the region were

struck by HIV, with promiscuous sex being the main reason for contracting the

deadly virus.

The paramilitary Assam Rifles was the first to officially acknowledge the

presence of a large number of soldiers afflicted with HIV-AIDS, although other

army and paramilitary units in the northeast are yet to come up with a formal

assessment.

Lieutenant General Bhopinder Singh, director general of Assam rifles, said 32

soldiers have died of AIDS and 180 more are in serious condition at two

treatment camps in the region. The first HIV-positive Assam Rifles soldier was

detected in 1992. ''Assam Rifles has realised the real threat from HIV-AIDS to

its soldiers deployed in high risk environment.

We are now seriously trying to evolve strategies to defend the defenders of the

region for national security against HIV,'' the vice admiral said. The threat of

more soldiers dying to HIV-AIDS than to bullets fired by militants have led army

and paramilitary authorities in the region to launch a massive HIV awareness

drive by distributing health literature and organising lectures on preventive

measures.

'The number of soldiers having HIV-AIDS belonging to various army and other

paramilitary units in the northeast could be a matter of serious concern. It is

high time we conduct random screening of blood samples of soldiers like the one

being carried out by the Assam Rifles,'' an army commander posted in Assam said.

''Any complacency on the part of the authorities could put the security forces

in the region under great threat.

'' India has an estimated 5.1 million HIV infected people.

Its northeast has been declared as one of the country's high-risk

zones with close to 100,000 people infected with HIV.

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http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/43878.asp

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