Uganda spokesman says there is no condom crisis

	Tweet

Uganda on Tuesday dismissed U.N. claims that an emphasis on U.S.-promoted abstinence-only programs to fight HIV/AIDS had created a “condom crisis.”

Stephen Lewis, the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said on Monday that Christian ideology was driving Washington’s AIDS assistance program known as PEPFAR with disastrous results such as a Ugandan condom shortage.

Uganda’s junior health minister Mike Mukula also denied reported claims by activists in Uganda and the United States that the emphasis on abstinence-only programs had left the country with a condom shortage so severe that men are using garbage bags in an effort to protect themselves.

"That is not true at all. Our policy is to maintain the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful and use Condoms) policy which actually helped Uganda to reduce the AIDS prevalence rates,” Mukula said in a telephone interview. “The three strategies have always carried the same weight.”

Uganda has been praised for cutting HIV infection rates to around 6 percent from 30 percent in the early 1990s, a rare success story in Africa’s battle against the disease.

But President Yoweri Museveni’s government has been criticized for what activists say is a reduction in the number of free condoms available due to pressure from Washington through the PEPFAR program.

As part of President George W. Bush’s global AIDS plan, the U.S. government has already budgeted about $8 million this year for abstinence-only projects in Uganda, human rights groups say.

“There is no question in my mind that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven and exacerbated by PEPFAR and by the extreme policies that the administration in the U.S. is now pursuing in the emphasis on abstinence,” Lewis told journalists on a teleconference on Monday.

Mukula said the government was “aware that there are people who will have to use condoms like prostitutes, discontent couples and sexually active teenagers.”

Uganda plans to provide condom vending machines in the capital Kampala, where condom use increased from 33 percent in 1999 to 76 percent in 2002, Mukula said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said Museveni’s wife Janet - a strong supporter of abstinence who hosted several hundred virgins last year - and charities close to her had received U.S. funds.

Museveni angered AIDS campaigners when he said in July 2004 that abstinence and faithful relationships should come before condom use.

RELATED STORIES:
Acculturation affects sex behavior in Latino teens   Sex change for Australian child   Circumcision, condoms reduce risk of genital warts   Sex researchers shed light on unpopular sex acts   Doctor jailed for billing for sex   Study links TV to teen sexual activity   European Urology: Male factor infertility associated with comorbidities   Study links restless leg syndrome with erectile dysfunction in older men   High rate of chlamydial infection seen in young adults in US   Online syphilis testing shows promise   Texas sex-ed textbooks face contraceptives battle   Morning-after pill well tolerated by teen girls

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]