Oped in The Times
Of India, New Delhi, 28 Feb 1997
‘We are fighting to
contain AIDS in the Army’
By Sheila Kumar
“The ideal I’m working towards is a zero-AIDS situation. As
of now, I know that sounds like moonshine. However, to achieve something, you
have to aim for the moon.”
Lt General D
Raghunath, Director General Armed Forces Medical Services, is not much
given to mouthing moonshine. However, the DG happens to be the man at whose
desk the AIDS buck stops, vis-à-vis the three forces. “It is not a comfortable
situation,” he admits. “The perception is that the services are an isolated
entity. But an infection cannot be kept confined, it vaults all barriers.”
As an administrator, he would like to keep the armed forces
“an isolated island of good health in a sea of sickness”. However, he knows
that is not possible. “So we are doing the next best thing,“ he says, “We are
fighting to contain it.”
Typically, the DG is not forthcoming about the current
figures of HIV-infected personnel in the Army, Navy, or Air Force. “It is less
than a third of the general community of AIDS patients,” is all he will
vouchsafe. As the Armed Forces includes 8 to 10 lakh of the Indian population,
even the one-third figure is cause enough for serious concern. Reliable sources
within the services’ medical community say that currently, the number of
HIV-positive cases on record is 251, with ten percent of them being full-blown
AIDS cases. Of these, two percent are officers.
In India, by 2000 AD, an estimated figure of four million
will be infected by the HIV virus (isn’t that Virus virus?) and 1,70,000 will
be full-blown AIDS victims.
The DG clarifies that in the services, heterosexual contact
is the main reason for the spread of AIDS. “The circumstances in the services
impose its own restrictions. With men separated from their wives for long
periods of time, we have to tackle the problem with utmost tact. However,
incidents of homosexuality are very low. To date, we haven’t had one case where
a homosexual encounter has resulted in an HIV infection. The same holds for HIV
contracted through blood transfusions. Blood and blood-related products are
handled with the utmost care in our hospitals and MI rooms.”
Gen Raghunath says that though troops stationed abroad in
peace-keeping stints do in some cases bring home the AIDS virus, it is not as
rampant as rumours would have one believe. “What is happening all over India is
happening within the forces, too,” says the DG, “Except in the case of the
armed forces, the human face to this disease is a far more compassionate one.
There are no attitudinal problems, our nursing staff tend to patients
diligently. We have a team of psychologists who counsel and help patients.”
“Our rates of detection are far higher than outside in the
civilian set-up,” says the DG, “The cases mostly come to light when infected
personnel come for treatment of STDs, voluntary ELISA tests or for blood
donations. From then on, we keep them under discreet observation. There is no
segregation as in the West. They are sent back to their units but we keep tabs
on them.”
When full-blown cases are detected, the men are officially
discharged from the forces. However, all treatment is given these men, free of
cost.
Under General Raghunath’s supervision, a special Army AIDS
Control Cell has been set up, with a budget allocation of Rs. 2 crore, a
research department and 60-bed wards in the Army hospitals at New Delhi,
Calcutta and Pune.
The Air Force has the lowest rate of HIV cases while the
Army and Navy are at par. All steps are taken to ensure that every soldier is
aware of the disease. A full-scale awareness campaign, with the use of posters
pamphlets, frequent talks, articles in the Sainik
Samachar has been under way for some time now. “The idea is to put them on
red alert and then, trust them to look out for themselves. On the whole,
though, our men know more about AIDS than the man on the street.”
“Now, it is time for all of us to take our heads out of the
sand,” says the DG, “The situation calls for a missionary kind of zeal.”
The HIV virus has broken the traditional picket fences the
services puts up. Gen Raghunath concludes, “I cannot and will not deny that
AIDS has made its presence felt in the armed forces. The situation is alarming,
combat efficiency will definitely be affected. But then, that holds true for
the national scene too. When it comes to us, though, we know the extent of our
problem and we are engaged in fighting it.”