UN agencies to assist El Salvador military with AIDS prevention, sexual health

Two United Nations agencies are signing an agreement today with El Salvador’s Ministry of Defence that will help educate the country’s military about sexual and reproductive health and AIDS prevention.

The $220,000 project is financed jointly by the Salvadorian Armed Forces, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

The aim is to educate officers and soldiers at all levels in the country’s armed forces – a total of about 10,000 people – over the coming two years.

According to UNAIDS, El Salvador has around a 1.1 per cent adult HIV prevalence rate, with approximately 7,700 adults living with the virus as of 2003. That year saw about 200 AIDS deaths.

The agency says that the national response to HIV and AIDS is marked by close cooperation among government ministries, civil society, people living with HIV and AIDS, the Global Fund set up to combat the disease, and various international cooperation agencies.