World's Most Successful AIDS Prevention Programme in Uganda "Sabotaged" by
Western "Experts"
Western advisors used their control of international funding to force a
change
in direction to condoms and casual ***
By Hilary White
KAMPALA, Uganda, July 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While the US Senate
considers a proposal to allocate US$50 million more for AIDS prevention
programmes, one Ugandan expert says it will be wasted money if the
attitudes
of the Western AIDS prevention community towards AIDS transmission do not
change. In a column appearing in the Wa****ngton Post on June 30, one of
Uganda's leading AIDS prevention experts called on the Western "experts"
to
"Let my people go."
"We understand that casual *** is dear to you, but staying alive is dear
to
us. Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS."
Sam L. Ruteikara wrote in the Wa****ngton Post that efforts to maintain the
world's most successful AIDS prevention programme was "sabotaged" by
precisely
those Western "experts" who insisted that only condoms would work.
Ruteikara is the co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee.
He
wrote in a column in the Wa****ngton Post on June 30, "AIDS epidemics in
Africa
are driven by people having *** regularly with more than one person." The
Western experts, dedicated to the exclusive promotion of condoms, were
incensed when Ugandan AIDS rates plummeted with this "ABC" method that
left
condoms as a "last resort".
The success of the Ugandan programme, Ruteikara said, did not sit well
with
those international experts and advisors, sent to Uganda to oversee the
spending of international relief funds, who are devoted to the condom as
the
first and last answer to the AIDS epidemic.
Despite the official line that Western "advisors" were to work within
local
programmes, these experts, Ruteikara asserted, actively stonewalled the
Ugandan committee's recommendations. The Western advisors objected that
the
programme was an attempt "to limit people's ***ual freedom" and they used
their control of the international funding to force a change in direction.
"Repeatedly, our 25-member prevention committee put faithfulness and
abstinence into the National Strategic Plan that guides how PEPFAR
[President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief] money for our country
will be
spent. Repeatedly, foreign advisers erased our recommendations. When the
do***ent draft was published, fidelity and abstinence were missing."
More insidiously, Ruteikara says that a "suspicious" statistic appeared in
re****ts that claimed a significant increase in rates of AIDS among married
couples. The claim was that 42 per cent of married couples were infected,
a
rate twice that of prostitutes. Repeated requests for the origin of this
statistic were ignored. Domestic surveys done by Ugandan health officials
found that only 6.3 per cent of married couples are infected, lower even
than
rates among widowed and divorced Ugandans.
Since the Ugandans were forced to change their programmes, surveys have
shown
that the percentage of ***ually active men with multiple partners has more
than doubled, undoing earlier declines, and the AIDS rate has begun to
climb
again.
The Ugandan success story is one of the most impressive in the fight
against
AIDS. Between 1989 and 1995, the number of men having three or more ***ual
partners in a year dropped from 15 to three per cent and HIV rates plunged
from 21 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2002. At the same time, Western
nations brought more than 2 billion condoms on Africa and the epidemic
continued in nations that went along with the condoms-only approach.
The motive for opposing the Ugandan initiative, Ruteikara said, was
financial
as well as ideological. "In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has
trumped
prevention," he said. "AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a
multibillion-dollar industry."
Ruteikara's assertions are sup****ted by Dr. James Chin, a former top AIDS
epidemiologist at the World Health Organization, who said, "Easily
preventable
diseases are still killing millions of children each year, while billions
of
dollars are being squandered annually by AIDS programs."
Robert England, head of the charity Health Systems Workshop said in the
British Medical Journal, "Although HIV causes 3.7 per cent of [worldwide]
mortality, it receives 25 per cent of international health care aid."
Ruteikara concluded, "Telling men and women to keep *** sacred -- to save
***
for marriage and then remain faithful -- is telling them to love one
another
deeply with their whole hearts. Most HIV infections in Africa are spread
by
*** outside of marriage: casual *** and infidelity. The solution is
faithful
love."
"We, the poor of Africa, remain silenced in the global dialogue. Our
wisdom
about our own culture is ignored."
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
UN Anger Over Uganda's Successful Abstinence Program Fuelled by Loss of
Funds
Says Researcher
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05101404.html
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08071112.html
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop
uk
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