HIV-positive people will soon be able to become soldiers. The Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, announced on Monday morning that he would take "in the coming days (...) a decree that will review all the criteria of fitness to enter the armed forces". The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had made the request a few days ago. The opportunity to put a spotlight on the medical conditions of eligibility to enter the armed forces.
"No one may be a soldier unless he has the skills required for the exercise of the function," says the Defence Code in force. These "abilities" include those of possessing French nationality, that of not being deprived of one's civil rights, of respecting the age criteria, but also (and especially) of being in shape from a medical point of view. It is an army doctor who decides and determines "a medical profile", at the end of an examination, on the basis of a reference called Sigycop.
It is the Sigycop – each letter of which refers to the different points controlled by the doctor, and whose importance of each field varies according to the body to be integrated – which today deprives HIV-positive people of integration into the armed forces. This reference system consists of a list of several hundred medical criteria with, for each, a coefficient. The higher the coefficient, the more the "disease" is a handicap: it deprives the candidate of certain positions and activities.
What Sigycop penalizes
"The range of these coefficients covers the different degrees ranging from normality, which reflects unrestricted fitness, to severe illness or major functional impotence, which commands total incapacity," explains the Sigycop order. A coefficient of 6 prevents any integration within the institution. In practice, a candidate may fail for a coefficient of less than 6 (HIV-positive people, for example, are disabled by a coefficient ranging from 3 to 5).
Sigycop, for example, penalizes people suffering from obesity. Those with moderate, severe or morbid obesity (above a BMI, body mass index, of 30) are condemned to coefficients ranging from 2 to 5. An "overweight" (over 25) is sanctioned with a coefficient of 2. Conversely, those in a situation of thinness (a BMI less than 18.5) are penalized by coefficients ranging from 1 to 4 "depending on robustness", while an "anorexia nervosa" receives a coefficient of 5. A candidate suffering from a "constitutional puntness" is given the same coefficient. People with diabetes are also handicapped by Sigycop.
Myopia, hyperopia and poor vision, with or without correction, are penalized by a coefficient of 1 to 6. Some cancers, treated and non-progressive, are also subject to a coefficient of 2 to 5, as is Crohn's disease, sanctioned with a coefficient of 5 at the commitment. What about neurological or psychiatric disorders? Insomnia "with physical or cognitive impact" is accompanied by a coefficient of 5 to 6, epilepsy, depending on the severity of the disease, 2 to 6, tics 2 to 6, mood disorders 2 to 5 and a diagnosis of schizophrenia 4 to 5.
As for height, "in the absence of underlying pathology influencing the medical profile, (it) does not constitute a medical cause of incapacity if it is in harmony with weight and musculature," says the order concerning Sigycop. However, "it is up to each army, direction or service to specify in the texts regulating the suitability for enlistment, any size criteria according to the specialty applied".