UNHAPPY: President Yoweri Museveni says some HIV prevention approaches have instead led to increase in prevalence rates
First Read:
‘Circumcision doesn’t reduce HIV spread’: Gregory Boyle and George Hill challenge Uganda’s Bogus Circumcision Crusade
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/03/circumcision-doesnt-reduce-hiv-spread.html
THE REPORT USAID DOES NOT WANT YOU
TO SEE: A 2009 USAID study -- quickly swept under the rug -- showed that
circumcised men were just as likely or more to have HIV vs. uncircumcised
(intact) men.
Don’t teach sex in schools: President Museveni challenges Neo-liberal corporate interests behind the HIV/AIDS crusade
‘Circumcision doesn’t reduce HIV spread’: Gregory Boyle and George Hill challenge Uganda’s Bogus Circumcision Crusade
President Museveni makes another attack on Uganda’s Bogus Circumcision Crusade
Return to abstinence, Museveni tells youth
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Return-to-abstinence--Museveni-tells-youth/-/688334/1635174/-/4nhsagz/-/index.html
By FLAVIA LANYERO
Posted Monday, December 3 2012 at 02:00
Posted Monday, December 3 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
Ugandans should embrace fidelity and monogamy as
measures of fighting HIV/Aids in the country, President Museveni has said.
Speaking during the commemoration of World Aids Day on Saturday, the President
expressed displeasure with current anti-HIV campaign messages that centre on
the use of condoms and safe male circumcision.President Museveni has called for a return to fidelity and monogamy that helped Uganda turn the tide against HIV.
Speaking at the bustling fishing village of Kasensero, Rakai, on the shores of Lake Victoria, where the first cases of Aids deaths were reported three decades ago, the President said the multiplicity of current messages was encouraging complacency, promiscuity, and resurgence in Uganda’s HIV prevalence rate.
Mr Museveni was particularly critical of messages about condom use and safe male medical circumcision, which experts say reduce the risk of HIV infection. “Messages now emphasise condoms which is wrong, why engage with people you do not trust in the first place?” Mr Museveni asked.
“When you are circumcised, you don’t become metallic or immune to HIV. The Bagisu, have for long, as part of their culture, undergone circumcision but still die of HIV/Aids.” “Uganda was one of the countries with the lowest condom use per capita, we departed from the main message, which was to instill fear to avoid promiscuity. Condom use was meant to be a last resort in circumstances where one could not abstain,” the President said.
HIV prevalence in Uganda has risen from 6.4 per cent five years ago to 7.3 per cent, according to the 2011 Aids Indicator Survey.
At Kasensero Landing Site, a bustling enclave of easy money and even easier sex, the prevalence rate is 41 per cent, the highest in the country. Uganda is one of only two African countries where HIV prevalence has shot up in recent years, the other being Chad. The rest of the world has recorded a drop of 50 per cent.
The President’s comments reflect a lack of clarity in Uganda’s response to the HIV epidemic. Heralded as a global success story and pioneer of the ABC model (Abstain, Be Faithful and use Condoms), the country is now struggling with complacency.
Prof. Vinand Nantulya, the chairperson of Uganda Aids Commission, admitted the challenge facing the country.
“We have inaccurate, contradictory messages on all FM stations and where there is contradiction, the public gets confused,” he said.
Experts say the government must also invest more in HIV prevention. “Messages have to be reworked and be unambiguous if the epidemic is to be stemmed and infections get to zero,” Ms Janet Jackson, the coordinator for the UN Aids agency, said. The government only invests 11 per cent of the total money spent on fighting HIV/Aids in Uganda.
Museveni blames Aids Commission for HIV rates
Sunday, 02 December 2012 22:14
President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday blamed Uganda
the Aids Commission for the rising prevalence of Aids in the country.
Within less than a decade, Uganda has gone from a ‘consultant’
on how to fight HIV/Aids, to being the only African country with rising
infection rates. And Mr Museveni believes that some of the “new” approaches to
Aids prevention, that UAC has embraced, have led to more people catching the
disease.
Speaking at ceremonies to mark World Aids day at
Kasensero landing site, in Rakai district, the president said methods like
circumcision and condom use had caused more harm than good.
“I think the only way to prevent Aids is through
abstinence and being faithful to each other for those who are married,” he
said.
In the 1990s, Uganda gained world acclaim for
promoting the ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful and Condom use) strategy to
drastically cut infection rates. However, a combination of factors,
including complacency and incoherent messages, have seen the country lose the
momentum.
The Uganda Aids Indicator
Survey (UAIS) figures of 2011 show that the prevalence of HIV among adults has
increased from 6.4% in 2005 to 7.3% in 2011. Ministry of Health figures also
indicate that new infections increased by 11.5% from 115,775 in 2007/8 to
128,980 in 2010/11.
But according to Musa Bugundu, the country
coordinator for UNAIDS, circumcision is not bad; the messages encouraging
people to use it should be designed in such a way that people should use it
concurrently with other methods. Speaking at Kasensero on behalf of Uganda’s
development partners, Swedish Ambassador Urban Andersson challenged the
government to increase funding of the national efforts to combat HIV/Aids.
He said Uganda was funding barely 11 per
cent of the efforts, leaving the initiatives scattered and unsustainable.
Andersson also encouraged the government to focus on investing in health
workers. Uganda’s
health sector is critically understaffed, with about 42% of positions vacant.
UAC also argues the health sector needs more
resources, including human resources, to steer all the interventions put
forward to combat scourges like Aids.
