HIV/AIDS

Armed conflict

The chaotic and brutal circumstances of war aggrevate all the factors that fuel the HIV crisis. War breaks up families and communities. It creates millions of refugees and exposes women and children to the peril of sexual abuse or systematic rape used as tools of terror by enemy forces. It destroys any existing health services. Identifying diseases associated with HIV or screening blood becomes difficult. War also destroys education systems which are useful in spreading information about the pandemic. In the wake of millions of orphans created by the situation, AIDS contributes to social and political instability.

The relationship between HIV and conflict is complex. They are both compounded by poverty. With sexual violence, the pandemic also takes on a gender dimension. Of the 17 countries with over 100,000 children orphaned by AIDS, 13 are in conflict or on the brink of emergency and heavily indepted. The world's poor nations carry not only a debt burden of abouth US$ 2 trillion but also 95 per cent of teh HIV/AIDS burden.

Involvement of military forces accelerates the spread of HIV infection during conflict. Soldiers and armed groups are the main perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation in conflict situations. They are also typcially young, sexually active men who are likely to seek commercial sex. Even in peacetime soldiers have sexually transmitted infection rates two to five times higher than those of civilian populations. These rates can shoot up to 50 times higher in times of armed conflict.

Publications