Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian Online - July 4, 2007
Assumptions that war and refugee crises fuel HIV/Aids epidemics have been disproved by a study of seven sub-Saharan African countries, which found no evidence that higher HIV infection rates accompany conflict.
A study published in The Lancet found that in conflict-affected parts of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, HIV prevalence decreased at similar rates as in unaffected areas. Nine of the 12 refugee camps surveyed had lower rates of HIV infection than the surrounding populations.
Even the use of mass rape as a weapon of war did not appear to have raised overall HIV infection rates.
Lead researcher Dr Paul Spiegel said previous studies did not take into account some of war's effects against the spread of HIV, such as the difficulty of moving between rural and urban areas, and the breakdown of commercial sex networks.
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