"The combat readiness of members of the Armed
Forces in any country is of paramount importance and must not be
jeopardized. HIV/AIDS presents a great threat to the well being
of our personnel with grave economic and security implications if
left unchecked. The Defence Headquarters is therefore fully committed
to eliminate all factors that could affect the combat readiness
of our troops including HIV/AIDS. Towards the realization of this,
we will continue to support and promote all meaningful programmes
aimed at checking the HIV/AIDS scourge in all Military Barracks".
"Visible achievements have been made in the area of awareness,
production of basic information, education and communication, routine
surveillance and screening of troops, and the adoption of an approved
Policy Guidelines on AIDS control within the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
Studies have shown that the level of awareness among the troops
is quite high but the behaviour they engage in are not in line with
the level of knowledge. Hence, emphasis in HIV/AIDS control in the
Armed Forces is now in the area of behaviour-change interventions."
HIV/AIDS in the military
"The armed forces, police, and other uniformed services around
the world face a serious risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections (STIs), and can serve as a core transmission group for
these infections to the general population. HIV prevalence rates
among the services are significantly higher than among the general
population. To understand this situation, one must consider the
circumstances of those who serve in uniform. Often they are posted
or required to travel for extended periods away from home, or must
await proper housing before sending for their families. Confronting
risk daily inspires other risky behaviors, and the sense of invincibility
the services promote sometimes carries over into personal behavior.
These groups also tend to have more frequent contact with sex workers.
Because of their command and control hierarchical structures, uniformed
services permit sustainable integration of HIV/AIDS/STI/Tuberculosis
(TB) prevention and care into the systems already in place."
Developing a Comprehensive HIV/AIDS/STIs Program for Uniformed Services.
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Document Name & Link to Document
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Description
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2006 VA HEALTH, INCOME AND OTHER BENEFITS |
Many fans of movie musicals can recall Joan Blondell belting out
“Remember My Forgotten Man” against a moving tableau of
World War I doughboys in Busby Berkeley’s film, Golddiggers
of 1933. In one of Hollywood’s rare early forays into
social issues, the song and dance number called for better
treatment of the World War I veterans who’d just been
spurned by President Hoover, the lame-duck GOP Congress and
even future World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur, who
used tanks to disperse thousands of unemployed and disabled
veterans demonstrating peacefully for benefits in Washington
the year before.
But over 70 years later, Blondell’s torch-song lament still
rings true: Most of us aren’t aware of benefits which are
available to all veterans – and especially disabled
veterans -- and they and the benefits due them too often
remain “forgotten.” (For just one example, in 2000 Lawrence
Deyton, MD, the VA’s national coordinator of HIV care,
estimated that only 18,000 of an estimated 85,000 to 130,000
eligible HIV-positive veterans had signed up for the VA
health care to which they’re entitled.) Here’s a brief
survey of income and health coverage programs for veterans
of active duty with general or honorable discharges. |
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AIDS
and the military |
Military
personnel have a high risk of exposure to sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV…infection rates among armed forces are
generally 2 to 5 times higher than in comparable civilian
populations |
109 kb pdf |
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AIDS and Violent Conflict in Africa
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No where
is the picture as bleak as in sub-Saharan Africa: mo re than
25 million Africa ns infected with HIV/AIDS (70 percent of
the world’s cases) and 17 million dead; on its current
trajectory, by 2010 the disease will decrease life
expectancy on the continent to levels found at the beginning
of the last cent u r y. These most recent data far surpass
the most pessimistic predictions about the effects of the
disease in Africa made just five years ago |
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New
reports are beginning to describe the full extent of this
African tragedy. One study ("AIDS Poverty Reduction and Debt
Relief: Implications for Poverty Reduction" by UNAIDS and
the World Bank, March 2001) has found that HIV-induced
declines in gross domestic product (GDP) levels in
sub-Saharan Africa are severely undermining poverty
reduction efforts in developing countries. According to the
report, the pandemic is shaving off up to two percent of
annual economic growth in the worst affected countries. Some
countries will see their gross national product (GNP) shrink
by up to 40 percent within 20 years. On the whole, the study
suggests, Africa's income growth per capita is being reduced
by about 0.7 percent per year because of HIV/AIDS. Another
study concludes that by 2010, per capita income in South
Africa, Africa's most robust economy, will drop by 7-10
percent while the GDP will be 17 percent lower than it would
have been without AIDS |
pdf 139 kb |
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Army
rate of AIDS Infection
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The combat readiness of members of the Armed
Forces in any country is of paramount importance and must
not be jeopardized. HIV/AIDS presents a great threat to the
well being of our personnel with grave economic and security
implications if left unchecked.
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BLOODBORNE PATHOGENS EXPOSURE CONTROL PLAN |
Department
of the Army control plan- To prescribe policies,
responsibilities and procedures for implementation of the
Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Control Plan (BBPECP) to meet the
letter and intent of the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard
(29 CFR 1910.1030). OSHA has enacted this standard to "reduce
occupational exposure to Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other bloodborne pathogens".
This plan details measures WRAMC and its employees will take
to decrease the risk of transmission of bloodborne pathogens
and provide appropriate treatment and counseling should an
employee be exposed to bloodborne pathogens. |
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Developing
a Comprehensive AIDS Program for the Military
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The armed forces, police, and other uniformed
services around the world face a serious risk of HIV and other
sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and can serve as a
core transmission group for these infections to the general
population. HIV prevalence rates among the services are significantly
higher than among the general population.
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HIV Prevalence in 72,000 Urban and Rural Male Army Recruits,
Ethiopia |
The current
study described HIV prevalence in relation to
socio-demographic characteristics among nearly 72,000 men
recruited in 1999 and 2000. |
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HIV Prevention and Behavior Change in International Military
Populations |
HIV poses
a real threat to both uniformed service and civilian
populations, especially during complex humanitarian
emergencies including the descent into and emergence from
crises involving armed confrontations. However, HIV
prevention is not always the first thing on a service
person’s mind in a conflict or crisis situation because the
“guns are going” and they are preparing to be deployed into
difficult, dangerous and stressful situations.
Nevertheless, learning about HIV/STIs and prevention
strategies is critical for every uniformed service member
before being sent into a conflict or crisis situation. |
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HIV Prevention and Behavior Change in International Military
Populations-HIV Prevention in Crisis Settings |
Despite a
multitude of prevention activities people continue to be
infected by HIV. The epidemic which initially emerged among
middle class gay men seems to have shifted toward working
class people. Subsequently, people with lower
socio-economic background seem to be more at risk of HIV
infection and to have fewer possibilities to cope with the
risk of HIV infection. |
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INCARCERATED VETERANS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR VA
MEDICAL CARE AT VA HOSPITALS AND CLINICS |
It is
important to note that the VA doesn’t permit armed guards at
its medical facilities. While there is no bar to unarmed
escorts accompanying persons in correctional custody
into VA waiting areas, escorts may well have to negotiate
physicians’ consents to accompany inmates into examination
and treatment rooms. And there would be even more problems
with 24-hour-a-day escorts for hospitalized inmates. |
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Knowledge of AIDS and HIV Risk-Related Sexual Behavior Among
Nigerian Naval Personnel |
Nigeria's HIV epidemic continues to grow, and Nigerian military
personnel are at increased HIV risk. While the sexual risk-related
behavior of Nigerian police has been studied, less is known about
their naval counterparts. The current study describes the knowledge
of AIDS and sexual risk behavior of naval personnel stationed in
Lagos, Nigeria.
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Modern-Day
Comfort Women: The US Military, Transnational Crime, and the
Trafficking of Women |
This paper
will examine three types of trafficking that are connected to
US military bases in South Korea: Domestic trafficking of
Korean women to clubs around the military bases in South
Korea, transnational trafficking of women to clubs around
military bases in South Korea, and the transnational
trafficking of women from South Korea to massage parlors in
the United States |
71 kb pdf |
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Presumptive Service Connection in VBA |
Power Point
Presentation |
86 kb |
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Prevalence
of Hepatitis C and Coinfection with HIV Among United States
Veterans in the New York Metropolitan Area |
US veterans
who are receiving medical care at VA medical centers in the New
York City metropolitan area have a much higher rate of chronic
hepatitis C than the general population…coinfection with HIV is
very common in patients with confirmed HCV infection, and these
patients should routinely be offered HIV testing |
206 kb pdf |
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Rape in War: Challenging the Tradition of Impunity |
Reports of
rape in the former Yugoslavia have brought much deserved and
long overdue international attention to the issue of rape in
war. This attention has highlighted the abusive character of
wartime rape, but it also has revealed the persistent
misunderstandings regarding rape's prevalence, function, and
motivation in war. Moreover, efforts to ensure that rape is
prosecuted effectively by the International Tribunal established
to try war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia have
underscored the difficulties in applying international human
rights and humanitarian law to rape. In order to overcome these
difficulties and to end the appalling history of impunity for
this abuse, rape in conflict must be understood as an abuse that
targets women for political and strategic reasons. |
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RUSSIA: "Growing Number of Army Draftees Have HIV" |
The UNAIDS report said 0.8 percent of Russia's military, or
96,000 out of 1.2 million, have HIV/AIDS. |
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The
Impact of Armed Conflict in Child Development
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The wounds inflicted by armed conflict on children
- physical injury, gender-based violence, psychosocial distress,
are affronts to every impulse that inspired the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Armed conflict affects
all aspects of child development - physical, mental and emotional.
Such effects accumulate and interact with each other.
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The normalization of violence-conflict, rape and HIV/AIDS |
Conflict and HIV are entwined as twin evils. War is the
instrument of AIUDS and rape is an instrument of war. |
93 kb pdf |
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Obtaining VA benefits
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From the Code
of Federal Regulation |
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Prostitution in Thailand: A North South dialogue on
neocolonialism, militarism, and consumerism |
Sinit
began by disclosing the staggering numbers of prostitutes in
Thailand and the places where they work. The Vietnam War was
mentioned as a contributing factor in the growth of
prostitution in Thailand during the 1960s. Instead of being
collapsed by the withdrawal of the American forces from
Vietnam in mid-1970s as expected, the sex and service
industries in Thailand were sustained by tourist 'troops' and
local clientele who adopted the Gl pattern of recreations and
maintained the Thai permissive code of conduct for males. To
justify their business, some sex tour operators regarded their
operation as a new kind of development aid to the Third World
poor women. |
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Use of Rape as a Weapon of War |
Rape as a
weapon of war has a long history and only recently has been
expressly punished under codified international law…it is
disquieting for governments and civil society throughout the
world to have witness the extensive application of rape as a
weapon of war in the current ongoing conflict in Darfur,
Sudan. |
758 kb pdf |
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