GLOBAL: Military Health Officials Confer on AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

GLOBAL: Military Health Officials Confer on AIDS

Associated Press (12.15.04) - Thursday, December 16, 2004

Military leaders from two-dozen African and South American nations are meeting their US counterparts this week at a five- day conference in San Antonio, Texas, to discuss strategies for fighting HIV/AIDS. Some sub-Saharan forces have two to four times the HIV infection rate of the general populaces, a CDC official said Tuesday. The Defense Institute for Medical Operations is hosting the conference, which ends Friday.

US Air Force personnel take HIV tests every two years and receive HIV/AIDS medical briefings before overseas deployments, said Col. Matthew J. Dolan, the institute's chief of medical operations. Mandatory drug tests also discourage IV drug use, he said. USAF records 35-45 new HIV infections each year. "That is low, but we'd like it to be zero," said Dolan.

But in some other countries, half of military personnel have HIV, and leaders are concerned with the potential dangers, said Keith Sabin, a CDC epidemiologist. "They said, 'We are very concerned. There will not be sufficient numbers of men to serve in the uniformed services because they will all be sick and dying and these are the institutions that maintain a lawful and civil society,'" said Sabin.

Conferees are discussing best practices and sharing ideas about what has worked, said Dolan. Most of the military personnel acquire HIV through heterosexual sex, he said. "It is a sexually active age and they are away from their homes and families and their regular partners, and they are taught to be bold and to take risks," said Dolan, explaining the stresses. "We try to look at these pressures and how we can deal with them."
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