To reduce HIV uphold behaviour change
Jan 15, 2009
<i>THE New Vision</i> of January 9, 2009 carried an alarming lead article ‘New Aids cases alarm doctors’ and reeled the statistics from an academic research by Makerere University lecturers.
By Fred Mwesigwa
THE New Vision of January 9, 2009 carried an alarming lead article ‘New Aids cases alarm doctors’ and reeled the statistics from an academic research by Makerere University lecturers.
The article said the fresh alarm is a result of the rate at which new cases of HIV are being registered, especially among the married who constitute 43%! Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli, director of Uganda AIDS Commission is quoted as saying: “For every two people you put on anti-retroviral treatment, five others are becoming infected.â€
The article paints a gloomy picture of a pandemic that has gone haywire since rising prevalence rates indicate a slackening in behaviour change.
The major angle from which to interpret the persistence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Uganda, despite efforts of health experts, religious, civil and political leaders is that since HIV/AIDS is mainly behavioural, Ugandans are signing an HIV/AIDS suicide pact by refusing to change their moral compass.
Since the major risk factor is multiple concurrent sexual partnerships, Ugandans are making a bold statement that despite the virulent nature of HIV/AIDS, they are ready to meet it head-on and either win by surviving catching the virus or lose when they are ‘unlucky’.
Dr. Alex Coutinho, executive director, Infectious Disease Institute, is quoted as having said: “People have never been scared of HIV virus even before anti-retroviral therapy.†Dr. Coutinho’s argument is corroborated by my recent conversation with a middle-aged man whom I asked why the majority of Ugandans did not seem to fear catching the HIV virus.
He said in Luganda: “Ebyo babyesasila†translated as ‘Ugandans know about HIV/AIDS, but they just pretend that it doesn’t exist.’ The New Vision August 26, 2008, quotes Cathy Watson, a prominent HIV/AIDS activist saying: “Despite the tremendous advances in knowledge, there remains one single fact, after a quarter of a century, success against HIV/AIDS is slipping spectacularly out of our grasp.â€
Although the condom was fronted almost as a magical solution to prevention against HIV/AIDS with a failure rate of only 2 to 3%, there hasn’t been corresponding success in curbing the disease.
Conversely, according to the report findings by Makerere University and Guttmacher Institute, four in 10 pregnancies in Uganda are unintended. These findings suggest that very few people effectively or efficiently use condoms. It is ironical that The New Vision November 20, 2008, reported that medical male circumcision is being fronted as the new magical wand to fight HIV/AIDS, despite trial tests showing that it can reduce risk of HIV by 60%.
I see the circumcision mantra as another avenue of evading the grim reality that AIDS is not flue or influenza that we need to experiment on with a marginal error of 40%. Matters have not been helped by some among the religious who, with a hope of cashing in on the unsuspecting victims, have promised what is normally false spiritual healing to curb AIDS.
In the process, some men of God have probably led more people to their graves than prostitutes who are traditionally considered major conduits of HIV/AIDS. It is sad that the married, who used to serve as role models in the fight against AIDS, are now in the vanguard of spreading HIV/AIDS since incidence is highest among this group.
The heart of the matter seems to be that Ugandans are signing an HIV/AIDS suicide pact and the bitter pill is that without behaviour change through total abstinence till marriage and total faithfulness within marriage, the end of the HIV/AIDS scourge will not be anywhere near.
The writer is a senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University
THE New Vision of January 9, 2009 carried an alarming lead article ‘New Aids cases alarm doctors’ and reeled the statistics from an academic research by Makerere University lecturers.
The article said the fresh alarm is a result of the rate at which new cases of HIV are being registered, especially among the married who constitute 43%! Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli, director of Uganda AIDS Commission is quoted as saying: “For every two people you put on anti-retroviral treatment, five others are becoming infected.â€
The article paints a gloomy picture of a pandemic that has gone haywire since rising prevalence rates indicate a slackening in behaviour change.
The major angle from which to interpret the persistence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Uganda, despite efforts of health experts, religious, civil and political leaders is that since HIV/AIDS is mainly behavioural, Ugandans are signing an HIV/AIDS suicide pact by refusing to change their moral compass.
Since the major risk factor is multiple concurrent sexual partnerships, Ugandans are making a bold statement that despite the virulent nature of HIV/AIDS, they are ready to meet it head-on and either win by surviving catching the virus or lose when they are ‘unlucky’.
Dr. Alex Coutinho, executive director, Infectious Disease Institute, is quoted as having said: “People have never been scared of HIV virus even before anti-retroviral therapy.†Dr. Coutinho’s argument is corroborated by my recent conversation with a middle-aged man whom I asked why the majority of Ugandans did not seem to fear catching the HIV virus.
He said in Luganda: “Ebyo babyesasila†translated as ‘Ugandans know about HIV/AIDS, but they just pretend that it doesn’t exist.’ The New Vision August 26, 2008, quotes Cathy Watson, a prominent HIV/AIDS activist saying: “Despite the tremendous advances in knowledge, there remains one single fact, after a quarter of a century, success against HIV/AIDS is slipping spectacularly out of our grasp.â€
Although the condom was fronted almost as a magical solution to prevention against HIV/AIDS with a failure rate of only 2 to 3%, there hasn’t been corresponding success in curbing the disease.
Conversely, according to the report findings by Makerere University and Guttmacher Institute, four in 10 pregnancies in Uganda are unintended. These findings suggest that very few people effectively or efficiently use condoms. It is ironical that The New Vision November 20, 2008, reported that medical male circumcision is being fronted as the new magical wand to fight HIV/AIDS, despite trial tests showing that it can reduce risk of HIV by 60%.
I see the circumcision mantra as another avenue of evading the grim reality that AIDS is not flue or influenza that we need to experiment on with a marginal error of 40%. Matters have not been helped by some among the religious who, with a hope of cashing in on the unsuspecting victims, have promised what is normally false spiritual healing to curb AIDS.
In the process, some men of God have probably led more people to their graves than prostitutes who are traditionally considered major conduits of HIV/AIDS. It is sad that the married, who used to serve as role models in the fight against AIDS, are now in the vanguard of spreading HIV/AIDS since incidence is highest among this group.
The heart of the matter seems to be that Ugandans are signing an HIV/AIDS suicide pact and the bitter pill is that without behaviour change through total abstinence till marriage and total faithfulness within marriage, the end of the HIV/AIDS scourge will not be anywhere near.
The writer is a senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University