Hot debate on HIV trasmission at Uganda meeting

By Pius Sawa Murefu, Kampala, Uganda

(Three items)

Hot debate on whether HIV/AIDS is an STI

Presenting a gender analysis of the Health Sector Strategic Plan 2 at Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala on 2nd July, during the launch of the revised National Action Plan on Women, an official from the ministry of gender, labor and social development, Crescent Turinawe, says some of the indicators of poor reproductive health are STI and HIV/AIDS. Here he pauses and emphasizes,

“You must know that HIV/AIDS is not a sexually transmitted infection”

It is time for questions and one member asks,

“I am Collins Juuko from central broadcasting Service Radio. You said HIV/AIDS is not an STI, and stopped there. You really left us in suspense. As a reporter, what will I tell my listeners when they hear that?”

The moderator, Mabuya Mubarak from the same ministry interjects,

“It is good that we have doctors here and other experts who will tell us whether AIDS is an STI or not. May be we go straight to doctor Josephine Kasolo, from the faculty of medicine at Makerere University.”

Doctor Kasolo, “I think it depends on how you look at it. It could be an issue of stigmatization that maybe AIDS should not be called an STI, because if you say so and so has AIDS, people may say wow she/he must have been sexually active. For a long time we have known that a disease like gonorrhea is passed on through sexual intercourse, but we hear of oral gonorrhea. That is against the law of nature!"

There is confusion in the hall and the microphone is passed on to the presenter.

Turinawe, “You know very well that the only way one can contract AIDS is through blood contact.”

Noooo. There are shouts of protest in the room.

“Yes let me tell you. Do you know that you can have sex with a person who is HIV positive and you don’t get it? But you cannot escape when you blood gets in contact? That is food for thought”.

But everyone is confused and there is murmuring allover. The moderator decides to stop the debate and moves on with other questions.

Another participant raises the issue of circumcision as a way of reducing infections among men. He argues that caution should be taken when preaching such a gospel lest men go on spree thinking they will not contract AIDS. Since the research was published, there have been an increased number of Ugandan men lining up at hospitals for circumcision.

Cervical Cancer. 100,000 women die each year in Uganda.

Dr. Nsubuga also working in the ministry of gender labor and social development revealed that one hundred thousand women die each year of cervical cancer in Uganda comparing the number to six coaster buses crashing with people every day.

The rate is alarming to an extend that government has started a pilot study of immunizing women against Human Papilloma Virus said to expose women to high risks of cervical cancer. Another research is going on at Naguru hospital in Kampala where girls are being followed up to establish the natural cause of cervical cancer.

The cancer is directly linked to HIV/AIDS, said Dr. Josephine Kasolo from the faculty of medicine at Makerere University. This is a new trend that needs to be addressed immediately. According to Dr. Kasolo cancer of the cervix used to appear in women above the age of thirty, but now even young girls are getting infected. Dr. Nsubuga said the exact cause of the cervical cancer just like cancer of the breast is not known but there is a link in the family history. He said there must be routine check because everyone is a potential cancer patient but the difference was time. Cancer, he said is the abnormal growth of normal cells in the body.

Mainstreaming gender in adolescent health

Reproductive health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease, in all matters related to reproductive health system and its function.

Sexuality for adolescent’s results in early pregnancies, vulnerability to STIs and poor health. The major contributor to this is the lack of information. In Uganda 211 out of 1000 girls give birth at teen age. High HIV/AIDS prevalence is among 15-19 years where girls are at 2.6 percent while boys are 0.3 percent.

This report revealed that poor health of women was due to; limited control over their sexuality, early marriages and pregnancies among adolescents, poor access to emergency health services, limited awareness about sexual rights and responsibility and capacity to enforce them and above all the inequalities in power relation at household level that affects women’s decision making on health issues.

It was observed that males involvement in maternal and child health care with reproductive health information will lead to improved family health through reduction in fertility rates.