Sponsor Only HIV-Free Students, Says Doctor

By Kikonyogo NgatyaA SENIOR consultant physician at Mulago Hospital, Dr Charles Sezi, has said the Government should review the education policy and sponsor only HIV-negative students to tertiary institutions.Sezi also called for a mandatory annual HIV-screening for such students so that the scarce education resources are not ‘wasted on HIV-positive students’. He said the measure would restrict the youth from involving themselves in risky sexual behaviour.Sezi’s comments are contained in an official journal of Mulago Hospital published at the end of last month. However, the hospital management disowned the article and said it was an individual opinion.Sezi, while addressing an international doctors conference on emerging epidemics and preparedness of African countries to curb them in Jinja last year, said HIV-positive people should be labelled. He said labelling would enable easy identification of the HIV-positive people so that others, especially medical workers, do not get infected by them during treatment.His ideas met criticism from human rights groups and organisations working in the fight against HIV/AIDS.Sezi told The New Vision yesterday that Uganda needed a law to control the spread of AIDS.Ends