Asian Officials Turn to Armed Forces for Help in Battling AIDS

Enlisting the aid of armed forces and police in HIV/AIDS prevention could help countries in the Asia-Pacific region more effectively fight the disease, said military officials meeting Saturday at the 7th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe, Japan.

The region has the world's second-highest infection rate behind sub-Sahara Africa, and armed forces are considered a high-risk group due to their mobility, officials said. Controlling HIV's spread among their ranks and training them on prevention could be a two-pronged solution in a region where poverty, low awareness, and stigma have allowed HIV/AIDS to proliferate.

According to Bangladesh Army Maj. Farhana Yasmin, her country has sent 54,000 military personnel on UN peacekeeping missions since 1998, and incorporating HIV/AIDS education into their training is integral to preventing the disease's spread at home and away.

"Soldiers may also become important… in reversing the spread of HIV within the military and beyond," said Yasmin. "They constitute a captive audience that is disciplined and used to carrying out instructions" and could be trained to help change attitudes and behaviors toward HIV/AIDS, she said.

The U.S. Army and the Royal Thai Army are participating in the world's largest community-based HIV vaccine trial underway in two Thai provinces. The trial, costing up to $13 million a year since 2003, is administering vaccines to 16,000 Thais ages 16-30. Outcomes are expected by March 2009, said Lt. Col. Jerome H. Kim, a U.S. Army medical officer based at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok.

Paula Stevens from the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police said police, as figures of authority, can also play an important role in addressing HIV/AIDS in the region. Police forces from 21 Pacific nations are planning to launch a new HIV prevention program to educate all recruits and officers before overseas deployments.

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