NEW DELHI, Dec 2: More than 5,000 Indian troops have tested HIV positive, a worrying trend that matches the national tally of 5.1 million HIV positive cases of the billion plus population
, according to a newspaper report, which quoted official statistics.
India has thus moved up to be placed second only to South Africa in the number of cases that have tested positive nation wide. For the army the worrying news is that on an average 50 new cases are detected positive every month.
The Deccan Chronicle quoted sources in the Indian defence ministry as saying that more than the troops travelling abroad on UN assignments, it was the soldiers coming back from tours of duty in the northeast as well as Kashmir who were contracting the disease.
"The soldiers constantly live in a tension-filled environment in Manipur, Assam or Nagaland., " the Chronicle quoted the source in armed forces medical services as saying.
"As soon as they proceed on leave from their far-flung deployment areas, they hit the brothels in Guwahati, Silchar and even Kolkata. Armed with a couple of bottles of rum they head straight to the red light areas as they find that sex relieves stress."
The study has proposed that troops be given more leave at regular intervals so they head home instead of brothels. "If they are given more leave they will not be so desperate and will wait at least till they get home," the sources added. The study has listed cities like New Delhi, Jammu and Kolkata from where soldiers are feared to have contracted the virus.
Prolonged engagement in United Nations military missions in Sierra Leone, Congo, Somalia and other African nations have also been a cause of the spread of HIV in the armed forces.
While the Army has the highest number of HIV-positive cases, the Air Force has the lowest. This is being attributed to better education among airmen and proximity to their families, the newspaper said.
An army spokesman said the first HIV-positive case had been detected in 1990 and it was due to the army's efforts that the spread of the disease had been controlled to some extent.
