The UN Security Council has urged member states to consider voluntary HIV/AIDS testing and counselling for troops to be deployed in peacekeeping operations, a UN news release said on Monday.
The Council unanimously adopted the US-sponsored resolution, the first by the Council on a health issue, expressing concern at the potentially damaging impact of HIV/AIDS on the health of international peacekeeping and support personnel.
It asked the Secretary-General to take further steps to provide training on the prevention of the spread of the virus and to continue the development of pre-deployment orientation and ongoing training on those questions for all peacekeeping personnel, the UN reported.
The UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone is the largest in the world currently standing at over 12,000.
The resolution also called for increased international cooperation as well as concrete steps by individual states to minimise the impact of the disease on the health of the troops.
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