US-backed AIDS prevention programme for military launched

A joint effort by the US government and the Tajik Ministry of Defence to educate thousands of military personnel about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is now under way. "The United Nations has identified military forces as one of several high-risk groups for HIV/AIDS transmission and infection, along with long distance truck drivers and other occupations primarily occupied by young men who often move from place to place," the US ambassador to Tajikistan, Richard Hoagland, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Tuesday. "The goal of the Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme is to address the needs of this high-risk group in order to assist in the overall fight against HIV/AIDS." His comments follow the launch of the initiative the day before, which included Tajik Defence Minister Sherali Khayroulloev. In addition to producing a core group of peer-to-peer educators that will act as core trainers at the Ministry of Defence, the programme will educate officers and soldiers in the Central Asian state about the causes of HIV/AIDS and STDs, and preventive measures to mitigate their spread. "The United States considers the HIV/AIDS pandemic a major threat to global stability because it is devastating populations, reducing productivity, depleting social services and threatening governments around the world," Hoagland added. Although officially Tajikistan enjoys a low official prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS, the incidence of the deadly disease is on the rise in this impoverished nation of 6.5 million. "HIV/AIDS is on the rise in Tajikistan," Azamdjon Mirzoev, the director of the republican centre for AIDS prevention, told IRIN from Dushanbe in a recent interview. As of February 2004, of the total 152 officially registered cases, 33 were recorded in January 2004 alone, Mirzoev said, warning, however, that the real number could be 20 times the official figure. As in other Central Asian republics, injecting drug usage was the primary mode of transmission - accounting for nearly 70 percent of all infections, with about 10 percent through sexual intercourse. "First there are injecting drug users and gradually it [the mode of infection] switches to sexual intercourse," Mirzoev explained. According to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Tajikistan, the HIV/AIDS and STIs (sexually transmitted infections) Prevention Programme is a joint effort of the US Department of Defense, the Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme, USAID, UNAIDS and the main military hospital of the Tajik Ministry of Defence. In addition, the AIDS Foundation East-West will provide trainers, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has contributed 200,000 condoms. The project will educate 16,000 Tajik soldiers before its completion in September 2004. The Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme has successfully educated armed forces in other Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. This is the first exercise of its kind designed for the armed forces of Tajikistan.