Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies (2001)
ISSN: 1530-5686
AFRICAN ARMY HASTENING HIV/AIDS SPREAD
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Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies (2001) ISSN: 1530-5686 AFRICAN ARMY HASTENING HIV/AIDS SPREAD |
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Stefan Lovgren
MSNBC.com
But soldiers could be part of the solution, officials say.
Africa’s wars and rebellions are now viewed as a major factor in the spread of the AIDS virus.
THE NUMBERS are mind-boggling. HIV rates in the armies of the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) and Angola are at least 50 percent. A Zimbabwean army spokesperson caused a stir last year when he said his military could have a 90 percent infection rate. As much as 40 percent of the South African military, widely acknowledged to be the best-trained and cared for in Africa, is HIV-infected, according to Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the deputy defense minister.
The prospect of a weakening of Africa’s often unruly and tyrannical armies raises little alarm among those who view them as a major cause of the continent’s poverty, brutality and corruption.
But many security experts fear that weakened, debilitated armies will destabilize the continent further, inviting rivals to take risks to redress perceived territorial slights left over by the colonial powers who drew the region’s borders.
“We haven’t felt the full effect of the epidemic yet, but it will soon have an enormous impact,” Madlala-Routledge told MSNBC.com.
Armies in Africa are not merely the most vulnerable to HIV infection: They’re also the most likely to spread it. Infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases are two to five times higher in the military than among civilians, according to the United Nations. International relief agencies allege that when these troops travel to other countries they sexual abuse local populations, using rape as a form of intimidation.
Even when soldiers are not deployed abroad, say experts, they are generally posted away from their families and partners. Spending months at a time in the barracks, military personnel often seek out sexual partners locally. And it’s not unusual for these troops to have regular contact with prostitutes.
While most soldiers are in the most sexually active 15-24 age group, the military ethos of risk-taking also presents a problem for AIDS educators. “A soldier is taught to be daring and unafraid,” said Madlala-Routledge. “It’s difficult to tell him to use a condom.”
HIV rates are now lower in Uganda’s military than in the civilian population, thanks to an aggressive testing and prevention campaign in the army.
While AIDS experts have identified Africa’s armies as a major problem, they also see in them the potential for controlling the epidemic. While HIV infection rates are rising in most African armies, they have been dropping dramatically in Uganda, from over 25 percent in 1990, to about 13 to 14 percent in the mid-1990s, to below 8 percent today. HIV rates are now lower in Uganda’s military than in the civilian population, thanks to an aggressive testing and prevention campaign in the army.
Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, director of Uganda’s Joint Clinical Research Center, which has carried out HIV surveys in the military for 10 years, says Uganda’s success is a result of the government taking early action, dating back to when Museveni sent his soldiers to Cuba, as well as recognizing AIDS as a potential security threat.
“Good leadership has played a vital role,” he says. “In Africa, we don’t have actors and musicians as role models, but we have politicians. Our leaders have been very open about AIDS and declared it a disaster.”
Unfortunately, Uganda stands out in having tackled AIDS so early and so aggressively. Ignorance about the disease also seems to run particularly high in the top leadership of many African armies. The head of the Nigerian army, Gen. Victor Malu, last week endorsed the claims of a controversial doctor, Jeremiah Abalaka, who claims to have found a cure for AIDS.
Malu told a news conference in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, that the majority of HIV-positive soldiers who had received the “cure” had experienced an improvement in health.
The general’s comments appalled officials at Nigeria’s Ministry of Health, who are concerned that the perception that AIDS can be cured is becoming increasingly widespread, especially in the armed forces. Nigeria’s National Academy of Science recently released a report in which it criticized Abalaka for his failure to subject his alleged cure to scientific evaluation.
Commanders from some countries with high HIV prevalence undoubtedly worry about being able to field a full contingent for deployment on short notice as personnel decline. Even if new recruits can be found, readiness and smooth teamwork are compromised if absences are filled by people who have not served together before.
According to an international survey in 1996, HIV testing is carried out in some form by 93 percent of reporting militaries. About 80 percent of the military establishments that conducted pre-recruitment HIV screening rejected candidates who tested HIV-positive, and an equal percentage restricted HIV-positive personnel from combat, overseas deployment and piloting aircraft.
While South Africa tests all new recruits, troops already in the military are not tested, and most infections occur after recruitment.
And testing is a sensitive issue. One woman in South Africa launched a lawsuit against the government last year after she was denied entry into the military because she tested HIV- positive. Some civil rights groups charge that testing is a violation of individual rights.
Still, AIDS education groups say military service is also an ideal opportunity in which HIV/AIDS prevention and education can be provided to a large, captive audience in a disciplined, highly organized setting.
And Uganda has now developed educational exchanges with South Africa and other countries to help them tackle the problem.
Copyright 2001 MSNBC.com
Citation Format
Lovgren, Stefan (Reprint, 2001). AFRICAN ARMY HASTENING HIV/AIDS SPREAD. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: 1, 2.