March 7, 2003	Friday	Muharram 3, 1424

WASHINGTON: AIDS in the military has emerged as a new security threat to developing countries, such as South Africa, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than four in 10 soldiers are infected with HIV, according to researcher Radhika Sarin of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.

“The deadly disease is deadlier than war,” said Col. Wale Egbewunmi, of Nigeria, who was quoted by Sarin in World Watch magazine.

Estimates by the US National Intelligence Council suggest that 10 per cent to 60 per cent of all soldiers in sub-Saharan African nations are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In some South African military units, the infection rate approaches 90 per cent, according to the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute.

That is significantly higher than HIV incidence in the general adult populations of these countries, where the prevalence runs from 2.8 per cent in Eritrea to 20.1 per cent in South Africa.

High rates of infection in the military may even serve to prolong wars. A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies linked prolonged fighting and plundering in Congo to high infection rates in the Rwandan army. The Rwandan government, fearful of what would happen when those infected soldiers returned home without money for treatment, was “slow to end its involvement in the conflict,” Sarin said.

To counter the threat, governments such as Nigeria’s have made education about HIV prevention a major part of military training. Nigeria also distributes condoms to soldiers and offers treatment.

Such measures work, Sarin said. In Uganda, the military has lowered its HIV rate from more than 10 per cent in 1990 to less than 7 percent today by adopting an aggressive programme to strengthen AIDS awareness and reduce the disease’s stigma. —Dawn/The Washington Post News Service.