No, we in TASO say Dr Seezi is utterly wrong!

SIR— TASO Uganda wishes to respond to the recent debate generated by calls by Dr Sezi of Mulago Hospital to have people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) excluded from government scholarships as well as subjecting hospital patients to compulsory HIV testing in order to “protect” medical staff.TASO is concerned that we have a situation where a respected senior physician is still using the HIV/AIDS rhetoric of the 1980s. When TASO was established in 1987, it was in response to the lack of services for PLWHA as well as to combat the stigma and discrimination against PLWHA in society in general, but particularly as practiced then y some health care workers in several hospitals. Uganda has since come a long way in the fight against HIV/AIDS; but we must be careful not to be derailed by backward looking approaches.Firstly, HIV testing of students is not ethical and goes against universal human rights. Even if we presuppose that only HIV negative students were sponsored by government, what guarantee is there that the students will not become HIV positive in subsequent months/years due to unsafe sexual behaviour? Does it not make more sense to continuously target all youth to adopt safer sex behaviours? Does Dr Sezi seriously believe that a student who may be under the influence of alcohol and has the immediate opportunity of sex will stop and remember that sexual episode could jeopardize government sponsorship? Does it not make more sense to make him/her value their lives more and abstain or use condoms? In any case, what proportion of adolescents and youth benefit from government sponsorship for this to be perceived as a real threat to change their sexual behaviour!Secondly, people living with HIV/AIDS have the same rights as all other citizens of Uganda including the right to all levels of education and equal opportunities at work. TASO makes a concerted effort to employ people with AIDS and they have been found to be hard working and faithful employees. Today with the philosophy of ‘positive living’ and with use of antiretroviral drugs, such people can live long productive lives.Thirdly, health professionals by virtue of the Hippocratic Oath and other oaths agree to care for their patients/clients at risk to their own lives. This has recently been highlighted by the heroic actions of Dr Matthew Lukwiya and other staff of Lacor Hospital who knowingly put themselves at risk while treating others and died of ebola. HIV itself is far less infectious compared to ebola. It takes a needle prick injury or gross contamination by body fluids to an open wound or mucous membrane to pass the infection from a patient to a health carer. Even then, the chances of infection are only 0.3% (3 per 1,000 pricks). Let us not manage our own fears and insecurities by stigmatising other people.Dr Alex Godwin Coutinho, TASO