While diseases like HIV is on the decline and counsellors have been appointed to tackle stress among soldiers, it is malaria, especially in the northeast and certain areas of Rajasthan, that is currently keeping the Army worried.According to sources, some soldiers are suffering from falciparum malaria in these places. “But early evacuation and prompt treatment have saved many lives,” said Col R Bhalwar, head, Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College.However, what was heartening to the Army is that only 360 HIV incidents were reported in 2007. This means that the new cases of HIV have been consistently declining since 2000 when it had reached 500 in the 1.3 million strong Army. According to Lt Gen S K Kaul, Commandant, AFMC, Army has been able to create awareness about HIV among all units ever since the first case was detected in 1992. The Army had enlisted wives of soldiers to create awareness on HIV apart from taking measures like discharging more than 100 HIV infected soldiers from duty in 2004. “We have customised programmes for jawans as part of our own Armed Forces AIDS Control Organisation,” Lt Gen Kaul said. The Armed Forces Central Epidemic Investigation team based in Pune, at the AFMC, has investigated outbreaks of Chikungunya. Now, the malaria in the northeast has prompted the researchers to find a better way to diagnose the disease in remote areas where laboratory facilities are not available.The results of the study will make the diagnosis and treatment of falciparum malaria more effective. According to Col Bhalwar, jawans are also at high risk from scrub typhus because of the terrain. Various insecticides have been evaluated against the vector for scrub typhus and recommendations have been made to spray fenthion every fortnight and cyfluthrin at weekly intervals for effective control of mites.
