This article examines four accepted wisdoms about HIV/AIDS andAfrican armies and in each case concludes that substantial revisionis necessary in the light of emerging evidence. First, it appearsthat military populations do not necessarily have a higher prevalenceof HIV than civilian populations. HIV levels in armies dependon many factors including the demographics of the army, itspattern of deployment, the nature and stage of the epidemicin the country concerned, and the measures taken to controlthe disease by the military authorities. Second, although theepidemic has the potential to undermine the functioning of nationalmilitaries, and may have done so in isolated instances, armiesin general are well placed to withstand the threat. Third, evidencethat war contributes to the spread of the virus is meagre andsuggests that we should be concerned primarily with specificrisks that conflict may entail including population mobilityand changing sexual networks. Lastly, the hypothesis that AIDShas the potential to disrupt national, regional, and internationalsecurity remains speculative.
1. Roger Yeager, Craig Hendrix, and Stuart Kingma, Internationalmilitary Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiencysyndrome policies and programs: strengths and limitations incurrent practice,
Military Medicine 165, 2 (2000), pp.8792.
2. S. Kingma, AIDS prevention in military populations: learningthe lessons of history,
International AIDS Society Newsletter,4, March 1996, pp. 911.
3. UNAIDS, AIDS and the military: UNAIDS point of view,
UNAIDS Best Practice Collection, May 1998 (http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/publications/irc-pub05/militarypv_en_pdf.pdf,9 January, 2005).
4. A.E. Pettifor, H.V. Rees, A. Steffenson, L. Hlongwa-Madikizela,C. MacPhail, K. Vermaak, and I. Kleinschmidt,
HIV and SexualBehaviour Among Young South Africans: A national survey of 1524year olds (Reproductive Health Research Unit, University ofWitwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2004).
5. According to a South African AIDS Law Project press releaseof 23 October 2003, the SANDF has however excluded andcontinues to exclude job applicants with HIV from employmentin the SANDF (http://www.alp.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=229,16 April, 2005).
6. Yigeremu Abebe, Ab Schaap, Girmatchew Mamo, Asheber Negussie,Birke Darimo, Dawit Wolday, and Eduard J. Sanders, HIVprevalence in 72,000 urban and rural army recruits, Ethiopia,
AIDS 17, 12 (2003), pp. 183540.
7. Taddesse Berhe, Hagos Gemechu, and Alex de Waal, Warand HIV prevalence: evidence from Tigray, Ethiopia,
AfricanSecurity Review 14, 3 (2005), pp. 10714.
8. Olive Shisana, Leickness Simbayi, and E. Dorkenoo, SouthAfricas first national population-based HIV/AIDS behaviouralrisks, sero-status and media impact survey (SABSSM) researchproject (Third Quarterly Progress Report, Household Survey2002, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 2002).
9. UNAIDS, AIDS and the military,
UNAIDS TechnicalUpdate, 1998 (http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/aidsleadership/dls_AIDS_military_may14.pdf,July 21, 2004); Military populations
AIDS Briefs(http://www.heard.org.za/publications/AidsBriefs/sec/military.pdf,December 22, 2005).
10. Tsadkan Gebre Tensae, HIV/AIDS in the Ethiopian military:perceptions, strategies and impacts (unpublished paper,2002).
11. A. Adefalolu, HIV/AIDS as an occupational hazard to soldiers ECOMOG experience (Paper presented at the 3rdAll Africa Congress of Armed Forces and Police Medical Services,Pretoria, 1999), pp. 411.
12. M. Fleshman, AIDS prevention in the ranks UNtarget peacekeepers, combatants in war against the disease,
African Recovery 15, 12 (2004), pp. 910.
13. The same was true in Thailand, where the army responded in advanceof the government.
14. HIV/AIDS and Uniformed Services: Analysing the Evidence.Expert Meeting, Cape Town, December 67, 2004 called byUNAIDS and attended by Alan Whiteside.
15. Edward Hooper,
Slim (Bodley Head, London, 1990); Edward Hooper,
The River: A journey to the source of HIV and AIDS (Penguin,London, 2000), pp. 429.
16. Robert Shell, The silent revolution: HIV/AIDS and militarybases in Sub-Saharan Africa in Consolidating Democracy,Seminar Report Series (Konrad Adenauer Foundation, East London,2000), pp. 2941.
17. Reinhard Kaiser, Paul Spiegel, Peter Salama, William Brady,Elizabeth Bell, Kyle Bond, and Marie Downer, HIV/AIDSseroprevalence and behavioral risk factor survey in Sierra Leone,April 2002 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention,Atlanta, GA, 2002).
18. C. Mulanga, S. Bazepeo, J. Mwamba, C. Butel, J.-W. Tshimpaka,M. Kashi, F. Lepira, M. Carael, M. Peeters, and E. Delaporte,Political and socio-economic instability: how does itaffect HIV? A case study in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
AIDS 18, 5 (2004), pp. 8324.
19. Taddesse Berhe, Hagos Gemechu, and Alex de Waal, Warand HIV prevalence: evidence from Tigray, Ethiopia,
AfricanSecurity Review 14, 3 (2005), pp. 10714.
20. Tim Allen, AIDS, security and democratic governance,The Hague, 24 May 2005. Presentation at expert seminar.
21. Paul Spiegel, HIV/AIDS among conflict-affected and displacedpopulations: dispelling myths and taking action,
Disasters28, 4 (2004), pp. 32239.
22. African Rights,
Rwanda: Broken bodies, torn spirits; livingwith genocide, rape and HIV/AIDS (African Rights, Kigali, 2004);V. Randell, Sexual violence and genocide against Tutsiwomen. Propaganda and sexual violence in the Rwandan genocide:an argument for intersectionality in international law,
Columbia Human Rights Law Review 33, 3 (2002), pp. 73355.
23. Kaiser et al., HIV/AIDS seroprevalence.
24. P. Fourie and M. Schönteich, Africas newsecurity threat: HIV/AIDS and human security in southern Africa,
African Security Review 10, 4 (2001), pp. 2944; M. Schönteich,AIDS and age: SAs crime time bomb,
AIDSAnalysis Africa 10, 2 (1999), pp. 14.
25. Rachel Bray, Predicting the social consequences of orphanhoodin South Africa (Working Paper No. 29, Centre for SocialScience Research, University of Cape Town, 2003).
相似文献