HIV cases in armed forces down to half in 5 yrs

While HIV infection is on the decline in the country,the efforts by the armed forces to combat the infection have proved successful to the extent that the HIV detection rate is now a miniscule 0.007 to 0.017 per cent in the serving population.

The prevalence rate of HIV in the armed forces is approximately 40 times less than the national prevalence. At present,the adult HIV prevalence in the country is 0.31 per cent.

According to top officials at the DGAFMS,the number of HIV cases — at less than 240 now — are half of what it was in 2004. The armed forces had reported 461 cases of HIV /AIDS in 2005 and 475 in 2004. A need-based HIV-AIDS control programme is being implemented in the armed forces with the latest revision in the policy being done last year.

The armed forces witnessed the spread of the disease in three phases — the first phase from 1991 to 1998,second from 1999 to 2003,and third phase from 2004 onwards.

The period from 1999- 2001 witnessed a sharp increase in the infection detected among the voluntary blood donors initially from 0.34 per cent to 1.3 per cent and then declined from 2002 onwards.

Action was immediately taken when the first-ever case of infection was detected in a jawan who returned from the UN Mission in 1991. This led to the formation of the AIDS Control Organisation (ACO) at AFMC,Pune in 1992.

The mode of contraction was mostly through sexual exposure and among the reasons for high prevalence were often the difficult service conditions.