HIV vulnerabilities and conflict dynamics. Understanding HIV vulnerabilities in the context of Nepal's conflict

The purpose of this research is to understand how Nepal's conflict is affecting vulnerabilities to HIV and exposure to the virus among females and males. Data was primarily collected during a three-week exploratory field study of Surkhet district in 2005. Twenty key informants and 35 stakeholders were interviewed, with the results triangulated by six focus groups. Documentary sources complement this data. A sociological model is designed depicting how the impact of the conflict and the responses of those affected have given rise to three different vulnerabilities to HIV: imposed contextual, conditional contextual and internalised. The paper concludes that the majority of those affected by Nepal's conflict are more vulnerable to the disease and that exposure to the virus may be increasing with forced displacement and migration.