§ Mr. KeetchTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of service personnel were suffering from(a) HIV/AIDS and (b) sexually transmitted diseases in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement. [153170]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 12 March 2001]The proportion of Service personnel known by the Ministry of Defence to be suffering from HIV/AIDS in each of the past five years is shown in Table 1. Table 2 shows the proportion of Service personnel referred to military Genito-Urinary clinics in each of the last five years. It is not possible to identify separately referrals relating to sexually transmitted diseases but they represent the majority of the referrals. No information is held on members of the armed forces who may have received advice or treatment outside the Defence Medical Services.
Table 1 Year HIV/AIDS(percentage) 1996 0.003 1997 0.005 1998 0.004 1999 0.005 2000 0.006
Table 2 Year Sexually transmitted diseases(percentage) 1995–96 2.1 1996–97 2.9 1997–98 2.7 1998–99 3.2 1999–2000 3.3 Notes:
1. For HIV/AIDS, the figures are recorded for each calendar year and the percentages are calculated against armed forces strength in April of that year.
For Genito-Urinary clinic referrals, financial year periods are used, as most (but not all) data were readily available only on that basis. The percentages are calculated against the strength at the end of each financial year.
3. Figures for Genito-Urinary referrals In Northern Ireland are available only for the first and last years of the sequence. Intermediate years have been estimated by extrapolation from these.