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EXCLUSIVE
VIRUS WAR
HIV, Lies & Masala Mix for Pak
propaganda, investigates NEERAJ MAHAJAN in
NEW DELHI
IF THE latest Pakistani
propaganda machinery is to be believed, about five million Indian Army
personnel are HIV +ve. How the Pakistan Army has arrived at this
figure, given the fact that the actual overall strength of the Indian
army is less than 1.5 million, no one exactly knows. This however does
not prevent the Pakistan Army and ISI from going whole hog with their
propaganda offensive to discredit the Indian Army.
Intelligence reports on the
contrary hint at a well planned conspiracy by Pakistan's Inter-State
Intelligence (ISI) plans to unleash the killer AIDS virus among Indian
security personnel in the army, police and paramilitary forces.
According to recent intelligence reports, Pakistan plans to use
Islamic terrorists to somehow contaminate and spread the infection
through Indian Army, Air force and Navy hospitals and other similar
central government health clinics frequented by the Defense and
Para-military personnel.
The body's immune system as
we know acts like a defense mechanism to protect us by destroying all
parasites, germs, bacteria and viruses, which threaten to make us ill.
HIV is a smart virus that tricks and evades the body's defenses. Once
the HIV virus takes hold, the immune system becomes weak and
vulnerable to even seemingly minor diseases. The only reliable way to
tell whether someone has HIV is through blood tests, which can only
detect the infection – that too at least a few weeks or months after
the virus first entered the body.
Another dimension of the
problem is that there are no specific tell-tale symptoms of HIV. Many
people who are infected with HIV do not have symptoms for several
years. But while they may look and feel healthy, they can be seriously
infected and continue to infect others.
According to a senior
defense analyst, "the art of warfare has undergone a sea change in the
last few decades and the best form of warfare is one which the enemy
is least prepared for and suffers the most without any comparable loss
to the own side. This has given rise to newer forms of offensive tools
like environmental degradation and the spread of infectious diseases.
In fact infectious diseases pose the biggest threat to human security
in the post-Cold War world.
No wonder infectious disease
accounted for over one third i.e. 52 million deaths all over the world
in 1995. Within just a span of two years the world witnessed more than
60 outbreaks of known as well as unknown infectious diseases. Regular
outbreak of new and unfamiliar varieties of diseases is a fairly
common worldwide phenomenon today. Take the case of the outbreak of
pneumonic plague in Surat, in September 1994 or the outbreak of the
Ebola virus that killed at least 59 people from India a few months
later in Zaire. Dengue a deadly tropical disease reached epidemic
proportions in Indonesia and Thailand in 1998. Zimbabwe was
overwhelmed by a major cholera epidemic in March 1999. Even Malaria -
a relatively common mosquito disease is infecting more and more number
of people in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. Tuberculosis
another infectious disease kills more than 600,000 out of 1.6 million
freshly infected people in Africa, whereas about 250,000 people die of
it in China, every year - making it one of the topmost infectious
diseases.
But the top slot for the
most dangerous and deadly infectious disease is undeniably claimed by
the HIV/AIDS. Such is its threat perception that in April 2000, the
Clinton Administration formally nominated AIDS as a grave threat to
the US security that could "topple foreign governments, touch off
ethnic wars, and undo decades of work in building free-market
democracies abroad."
As compared to 33.4 million
HIV +ve people around the world and more than 2.5 million AIDS related
deaths in 1998 - there were more than 100 million HIV +ve people
worldwide by 2005 with close to 15,000 new infections being reported
per day. The AIDS epidemic has reduced the life expectancy in
countries like Zimbabwe by more than ten years.
The growing threat of
infectious disease has given rise to an increasing awareness among
many governments worldwide that HIV/AIDS is not merely a public health
concern but a serious national and international security issue. Such
is its threat potential that the Director of US Office of National
AIDS Policy described AIDS as a "fundamental economic development,
security and stability issue that could demolish a country's economy
leading to increased unemployment, reduced social stability and
eventually anarchy and political chaos. A US State Department report
warned that the AIDS epidemic is “gradually weakening the capacity of
militaries to defend their nations and maintain civil order.”
To counter the threat of
HIV, Indian army is making it mandatory for all personnel serving in
the Northeast to undergo HIV tests. Even new recruits wishing to join
the Armed forces have to undergo pre-recruitment screening test to
prevent HIV positive people from joining the Indian forces. HIV/ AIDS
is something that the Indian Army, police and paramilitary forces
cannot afford to mess up with. This is a problem that Armies all over
the world are finding it difficult to combat. As things stand today
nearly 40-60 per cent military personnel in Angola and Republic of
Congo, 15-30 per cent soldiers in Tanzania and 10-20 per cent in
Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Eritrea are reportedly suffering for HIV
and AIDs.
India too cannot afford to
ignore this problem, considering the fact that statistics compiled by
NACO suggest that an estimated 22 million men in India have sex with
men and nearly 85 out of every 100 HIV+ve persons-- actually get the
infection through unsafe sex in India.
(TO BE CONTINUED….)
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