The special requirements for HIV-prevention programmes by armed forces or insurgency groups in very poor countries that are in active conflict have not been well described. Customary military programme components include: education on sexually transmitted diseases, condom distribution, and HIV testing. Programmes for these armed forces must address: a command structure that may not prioritize this activity, severe resource and logistical constraints, weak health systems for treating sexually transmitted illness, beliefs in traditional medicines for symptoms of sexually transmitted illness, illiteracy that diminishes the utility of educational pamphlets, rape and sexual bartering by soldiers, battlefield transfusions, tattooing and the co-epidemic of tuberculosis.