A week-long Military HIV/AIDS Prevention Conference opened its second day at the Gaborone Sun Hotel March 3, 2009 with approximately 150 participants in attendance, to include representatives from 26 African countries and 18 local and international non-governmental organizations.

The focus of the day's discussions was behavioral HIV prevention intervention, building upon the previous day's focus on structural intervention.

Peer Educator Programs, the first session of the morning, included briefings by military officers from Uganda, Ethiopia, Botswana and Senegal who discussed the structure and challenges of their respective programs. In these national militaries, peer educators are those soldiers identified to provide HIV/AIDS education to their fellow service members and in some cases families.

While presentations and discussions underscored that the specifics of African military peer educator programs vary significantly from nation to nation, the broad consensus among conference participants was that well planned and comprehensive peer education programs must be a priority in the fight against this disease.

During her briefing on a HIV/AIDS education and prevention partnership between the United States and Mozambique, Dr. Deborah Cornman, University of Connecticut, identified three conditions that must be present for a person to change from risky to safer sexual behavior: accurate information about the disease and its causes, motivation to perform safer sex, and the necessary skills to conduct safer sexual behavior. Afternoon sessions touched upon these issues, to include the role of alcohol in the transmission of HIV and the role of chaplaincy.

Alcohol use is not worse in Africa, but its intersection with HIV makes it a problem, stated Dr. Naomi Bock, Global AIDS Program, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia. Not only does intoxication impair risk perception, but it also results in reduced treatment adherence and increased toxicity among people with HIV. Persons who use alcohol have a higher prevalence of HIV as compared with non-drinkers, and binge or heavy episodic drinking is more predictive of sexual risk behaviors than drinking frequency.

Bock addressed several potential means through which to reduce HIV risk behaviors related to alcohol use, including media campaigns to raise awareness, the support of networks of organizations working in alcohol risk reduction, and the establishment of structural interventions to reduce hazardous drinking. Strong military leadership and peer identity and support were identified as important components to address this issue.

Chaplain K. L. Mashishi of the South African National Defence Force spoke to the motivational aspect of HIV/AIDS prevention with a discussion on combating the disease through spiritual and ethical conduct. "The role of chaplaincy is to educate, to teach, to preach, to rebuke -- yes, to rebuke -- and to encourage soldiers to stay HIV negative by taking precautions in sex, using protective measures, and remaining faithful," he commented. "Sex is a wonderful gift from God and we need to enjoy it."

The conference, sponsored by the Botswana Defence Force in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Botswana and the U.S. Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program, will run through March 5.