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Post-conflict areas vulnerable to HIV/AIDS-report
Written by: James Kilner
Women hold candles during the annual AIDS memorial day in Phnom Penh May 25, 2007. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
LONDON (AlertNet) - People in areas emerging from conflict are at particular risk of contracting HIV/AIDS due to the dangerous mix of hardened ex-soldiers and vulnerable refugees living in the same damaged society, a report has said. Researchers for the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) also said the gap between the end of emergency aid operations and the start of development programmes was often critical. For impoverished war-ravaged communities that depend on food handouts, a gap in aid and support may push some women and girls into prostitution -- increasing the chance of HIV/AIDS spreading. "HIV risks may be exacerbated during transition from crisis or conflict to post-conflict situations," wrote the authors of the 88-page report. "Although the need to address HIV as part of post-conflict initiatives has in principle been recognised and HIV is on the agenda of most organisations, the steps by those organisations have been few and often remain ill defined." The New York-based SSRC spent three years researching HIV/AIDS in so-called fragile countries. It concluded that HIV/AIDS had not so far overwhelmed the more fragile countries with high infection rates, as the doomsayers had predicted. But regions emerging from conflict were especially vulnerable to the disease, the report said. Manuel Carballo, director of the Geneva-based International Centre for Migration and Health and head investigator on the SSRC report's post-conflict section, explained. He said the typical characteristics of a post-conflict area -- high unemployment, broken homes, a society inured to violence and death -- coupled with the toxic mix of a large number of out-of-work soldiers and vulnerable female refugees often helped to create conditions in which HIV/AIDS rates could flourish. "The threat to displaced women is especially high," Carballo told AlertNet. "So many aid groups leave after a conflict that there are no groups to safeguard women." The SSRC drew their conclusions from interviews with aid workers, peacekeepers, combatants and refugees in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. Carballo said simple measures could reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in post-conflict areas. "Not training peacekeepers to educate people about HIV and not giving people who go through demobilisation, programmes on HIV is an opportunity that has been missed," he said. He said he wanted to conduct a follow-up report for data on the spread of HIV/AIDS in post-conflict areas to back up the interviews in the SSRC report. To read the full report click here .
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