War Fans the Flames of HIV in Africa
Originally published by Reuters Health, July 9, 2002
BARCELONA (Reuters Health) — Wars and internal conflict are increasing the spread of HIV in Africa, where some 28 million of the world's 40 million infected people live, aid agency Save the Children said on Tuesday.
The number of African states involved in wars and internal conflicts has doubled from 11 to 22 since 1989, the charity's Doug Webb said at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona. Countries like Sierra Leone, Angola, Rwanda and Burundi, where HIV rates are already high, will suffer an increasing burden as a result.
"If we don't address this, we are going to see HIV clustering in these countries in conflict over the medium to long term," he said.
Webb told reporters that the dislocation, poverty and starvation that accompany conflicts make people more vulnerable to infection. Add to this the destruction of education and health systems in war-torn countries, plus an increase in rape and sexual exploitation, and you have a recipe for "a double emergency."
"In conflict situations, children are even more vulnerable because food is scarce, they might have been forced from their homes and there is an increased likelihood of sexual exploitation," he said.
Save the Children released a new report on the issue of HIV and armed conflict at the conference, showing that 680,000 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the African country with the largest ongoing war, have lost parents to AIDS.
In Uganda, members of rebel armies with an HIV rate of 27% sexually abused thousands of women.
"A lack of international funding is the single largest obstacle to reducing the spread of HIV in conflict situations," the report states. "Governments, donors and humanitarian agencies must take urgent action to protect the lives of an estimated 15 million young people directly threatened by HIV/AIDS in conflicts and related emergencies around the world."
In a separate report, health information group HealthLink Worldwide and Panos London said targeting HIV-prevention efforts to soldiers could help fight the AIDS epidemic.
"Twenty-two million people serve in the armed forces across the world, many of whom are men in their 20s and 30s, and sex is a preoccupation," he told reporters.
In African armed forces, for example, HIV rates average between 20% and 40%, said Martin Foreman, the report's author. In Cambodia, up to 17% of the armed forces were estimated to be HIV positive in 1999, compared with 3.7% in the general population.
But inadequate funding, fear of breaching confidentiality and restricted access make tackling the problem difficult.
"Programs for HIV treatment and care in armies need to be expanded and integrated into programs for the civilian population," he said. "This is, of course, not only to benefit soldiers themselves but to protect the short-term and long-term partners."
