Armed Forces Enroll Wives in fighting HIV/AIDS

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) Can an injury caused due to a syringe used on an AIDS patient infect the injured with HIV? No, it won't.

Because HIV must enter your body in sufficient quantity for you to get infected. That's another reason why it is almost impossible to get infected with HIV from a barber's razor.

Also, is it true that most of the women infected with HIV are prostitutes? Myth again! Most women infected with HIV are housewives and a majority of them -- over 70 per cent in fact -- get it through their husbands.

Revealing facts like these are samples from a set of 40 Q&As included in a three-booklet set and a CD released by Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services Surgeon Vice-Admiral Yogendra Singh here today.

The booklets and the CD were distributed to more than 100 participants at a workshop for Armed Forces Wives Welfare Associations. The participants -- wives of serving soldiers and drawn from the three services -- will form Peer Group Leaders who will disseminate awareness on HIV/AIDS among peer groups of about 20 wives of soldiers in the field units.

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the Armed Forces has alarmed the authorities. Since the first detection of HIV in a soldier returning from a UN mission in 1992, the virus has affected 0.028 per cent of the Armed Forces' strength, according to a statement placed in Parliament last year.

A total of 104 HIV-infected soldiers were discharged from service in 2004 alone.

The workshop and the focus on Peer Group among wives of soldiers is part of a thrust programme in the Armed Forces to combat HIV/AIDS -- the enemy within the ranks.

Underlining the role women could play in checking HIV spread, Admiral Singh motivated soldiers' wives to create awareness and combat the menace. "The youthful, exuberant and aggressive attitude of our troops combined with the long separation from families and high mobility has compounded the risks faced by them," Admiral Singh said in his inaugural address to the two-day workshop.

Mrs Anupama Singh, Mrs Maria Teresa Mehta and Mrs Zareen Major, the Presidents of the Wives Welfare Associations of the Army, Navy and Air Force, respectively, are attending the workshop which has been organized by the AFMS and the US Pacific Command in association with two NGOs -- SOMA India and Partners in Development Initiatives (PDI).

UNI