Transmission and prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in war settings: implications for current and future armed conflicts.

Armed conflicts often constitute ‘complex emergencies’, defined as situations affecting large civilian populations which combine war or civil strife with food shortages and population displacement [1,2]. Wars can increase the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and facilitate HIV transmission through sexual routes, injection drug use (IDU), contaminated blood transfusions and occupational injuries; furthermore, they can create synergistic conditions for interacting epidemics. Armed conflicts can influence HIV epidemic dynamics in surrounding countries and beyond, both directly by affecting HIV transmission itself and indirectly through reallocation of health-related public funds toward security and defense measures.