ABSTRACT
Health security rarely benefits in a direct or immediate fashion from conflict and instability. War disrupts and destroys people and places, including the medical personnel and health infrastructure that might otherwise be available. Like disruption and destruction, another hallmark of war is that it can both displace and concentrate large numbers of people. This is true for the military and civilians alike. People are displaced as they move around to either engage in armed conflict or attempt to avoid it. Often, in the process of moving, these people also end up concentrated in locations like military barracks and refugee camps. In 2000, UN Security Council Resolution 1308 stressed “that the HIV/AIDS pandemic, if unchecked, may pose a risk to stability and security.” According to the Security Council, one prominent way that stability and security were threatened was through “the potentially damaging impact of HIV/AIDS on the health of international peacekeeping personnel.”.
