By Raymond Baguma and Anthony Bugembe
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has appreciated the support given to Uganda by global partners in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. “Without your support, we would not have reached where we are today.”
He specifically thanked the UN agencies and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The President, who was on Tuesday addressing the ongoing Global HIV/AIDS implementers’ meeting in Kampala, also paid glowing tribute to the US government, especially President George Bush. He cited Bush’s support through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and increasing aid to Uganda by the US from $236m (sh386) to $283m (sh463b).
Museveni, who was accompanied by his wife Janet, also thanked the Global Fund for resuming remissions to the country. He gave assurance that past mistakes, where resources from the body were mismanaged, would not be repeated because “mechanisms have been put in place to ensure proper use of the funds.”
Former health minister Maj. Gen. Muhwezi and his deputies then, Capt. Mike Mukula and Dr Alex Kamugisha, have been charged with embezzling the funds. The five-day meeting at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala is running under the theme Scaling-up-Through Partnership: Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation.
It has attracted over 1,700 participants. Museveni observed that the theme was appropriate because it could help each country identify specific interventions that could lead to stemming the pandemic.
He pointed out that Uganda was able to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence because the major mode of transmission (sexual intercourse) was identified and tackled head on.
The President, however, was dismayed by the stagnation of the prevalence rate at 6.4% today from 30% in 1986. Messages against the disease should warn the public, especially the youth, against reckless living, Museveni stressed.
“The (Uganda) AIDS Commission should repackage its message to young people that anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) are a second choice. The first choice should be to remain healthy and don’t fall sick.”
He noted that the country had lost at least one million people to the scourge and two million children left orphaned, something which he said had slowed down development.
“Although our economy is one of the fastest growing in the world, it could have grown faster by one percent more every year if it was not for HIV/AIDS.”
The Government, he added, was emphasising behaviour change instead of condoms. “Our main method was behaviour change and it has worked. Many people are discouraging us, saying it is not possible.
This is absolute nonsense.” The UNAIDS executive director, Dr. Peter Piot, said most interventions were focusing on treatment, but paying less attention to prevention.
This article was published in The New Vision on June 4th 2008
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