How HIV took Uganda by storm

 

To commemorate this year’s World AIDS Day Faustin Mugabe brings us the story of the scourge that almost brought Uganda to her knees 

 

Please stand up for a moment of silence for HIV/AIDS victims living and dead”. This is how Ugandan legendary musician and anti-AIDS campaigner Philly Bongole Lutaaya opened his speech on September 30, 1989.

 

This was at the launch of Alone, his last music album, at Sheraton Kampala Hotel. Flanked by Vice-President Samson Kisekka, Lutaya said: “I felt obliged to put down something in music describing the feeling of loneliness, dejection, despair and helplessness that I and other AIDS victims feel.”

 

He said he wanted to preserve a legacy to Uganda and the world. That he did, just as President Museveni commanded the ferocious war against AIDS. 

 

Before 1986, AIDS was a confusing mystery to the world. In fact to this day, its cradle is still obscure. In early 1986, a BBC Service for Africa report quoted a German study of 6,015 blood serum samples collected from Africa between 1976 and 1984 which revealed little evidence to support the widely believed theory that AIDS originated from Africa.  

 

The report indicated that the patterns of evidence of AIDS in Africa were different to that in the West. In the US, AIDS was common among homosexuals and drug addicts. 

 

In Africa, AIDS was identified with urban-dwelling heterosexual men, their wives and children and prostitutes. However, blood tests in East Africa showed anti-body infection levels highest among symptom-less rural workers and their children, the report revealed. 

 

In Uganda, ‘slim’ as AIDS was popularly known then, was believed to have had its cradle around the Masaka — Rakai area. While it is said the earliest medical report about AIDS from the area was recorded as early as 1982, there are reports that the report was not unveiled to the public due to the security scare it would cause if Uganda knew that AIDS had no cure — perhaps the reason there is hardly any press documentation before 1986. Why Masaka - Rakai could have been the cradle of AIDS still remains a big question. 

 

On March 20, 1986, the Weekly Topic published a lead story titled: AIDS kills 100 monthly in Rakai. The paper also quoted a resident of Kyotera in Kampala. The anonymous resident said: “The burial of slim victims (mostly people between the ages of 17 and 40) in Rakai has become a daily activity for us,” the person said. When the paper reached the health minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, he disputed the number and said: 

 

“Although the situation is serious, your figure of 100 people is exaggerated”. He said from the information available from Dr. Emmanuel Rwegaba, the district medical officer Rakai, between 20 and 30 people died from AIDS a month. He added:

 

“We are sending a team of doctors from Makerere University Medical School and Ministry of Health headquarters to the area to assess the situation and to launch a campaign against the disease. The Government is concerned about the question of AIDS in the country. Some of our people even think wrongly that AIDS is caused by witchcraft,” Rugunda lamented. 

 

People living with HIV were desperate to acquire any medication at all risk. The clergy told their congregations to pray to God for mercy. President Museveni disagreed with them. He emphasised AIDS awareness and behaviour change. Until 1986, patients shared syringes. Superstition about AIDS was also damaging.

 

People associated AIDS with witchcraft. In 1989, students from Makobore High School, Rukungiri clubbed to death a beer seller. They suspected her to have bewitched their famous economics teacher using the lungs of a cat or a hyena. The teacher had died of an AIDS-related symptoms. 

 

In Sembabule, a woman called Yowanina Nanyonga claimed God had told her to give people soil to eat to cure AIDS.

 

Hordes of curious people across the world trekked to Sembabule for the miracle that never was. Some associated Herpes Zoster or Kisipi with fish. In Kampala, people stopped eating fish. In his letter titled: ‘Fish does not transmit ‘Kisipi’ Dr. Sam Okware wrote in the Weekly Topic of May 3, 1989, disputing the superstition.

 

Before, he had been to UTV and Radio Uganda giving facts about AIDS. Through the media, the war against AIDS intensified. Although there was one radio stattion, the AIDS adverts were effective. For instance, there was the famous AIDS drum sound advert, people called it Ekigoma Kya’slim.  Whenever, it sounded, it would cause ‘temporal impotence’ in men sleeping with a girlfriend or someone’s wife. 

 

Meanwhile President Museveni and the word AIDS became synonymous. Every where he went he preached about ‘Slim’. His critics feared his ‘gospel’ would tarnish the image of the poor Uganda recovering from war. His response was simple.

 

If the house is burning, you make a lot of noise so that people run out. Since 1986, a lot has been achieved — nevertheless, a lot is still needed in the war against AIDS. 

 

There is no family in Uganda that can claim not to have lost someone to AIDS, so on December 1, let’s all stand up for a moment of silence for the people living with HIV/AIDS, living and dead.