-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- JANUARY 17, 05:04 EST AIDS Sweeps Across Rwanda By HRVOJE HRANJSKI Associated Press Writer KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Callixte Rucamihigo and his wife escaped death at the hands of screaming militiamen in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, only to fall victim to a silent killer that knows no ethnic differences. Last year, a doctor told the 34-year-old former government worker he'd contracted the virus that causes AIDS. When blood tests confirmed his wife was also infected, she didn't wait for the ailment to run its course. She killed herself. In a speech to the U.N. Security Council last week, Vice President Al Gore compared the gravity of this new threat to Africa's old, familiar threat of war. In Rwanda, the past and future collide. Little more than five years after Hutu extremists tried to exterminate the country's minority Tutsis, disease — rather than machetes and guns — is cutting a deadly swath through Rwanda. One in 10 Rwandans is now infected with the HIV virus, and 10 years of bloody upheaval have bred an apathy and fatalism that ensures the number of victims will grow. The government declared the fight against AIDS a national priority in 1997, but official warnings about the disease's dangers don't easily scare people still traumatized by one of the 20th century's worst bloodbaths. ``These people have lived through genocide. They've seen the worst. For many, AIDS has no meaning. Why care about AIDS when you've seen your family killed?'' says Pascale Crussard of the aid group CARE. Those Rwandans who acknowledge their HIV infections have little prospect of help. Only 150 people can afford the monthly cost of the drug AZT — 180,000 Rwandan Francs, or the equivalent of $500, says Dr. Chantal Kabagabo, who works at the government-sponsored National AIDS Control Program. At the program near Kigali's main hospital, one of only two AIDS counseling centers in Rwanda, up to 200 people arrive each day for testing, but its two nurses and three full-time counselors can handle only 40. ``Many people ask us for medicines, to follow them home, to help them make a living. All of it is useless, because we can't do anything apart from handing them the verdict of their results,'' says Cecille Ndoli, the center's director. According to a national survey in 1997, the infection rate among Rwanda's urban population has remained constant at 10 percent. HIV has increased dramatically, however, among rural Rwandans — from 1.3 percent of the population in 1986 to 10.8 percent in 1997. By 1990, AIDS was already rippling across Rwanda, but doctors say its explosive growth since then is a legacy of the genocide. When the minority Tutsis took over the government, Hutu militants went on a murderous rampage. Many Tutsi women who survived are suspected to have been raped, and those widowed by the genocide often turned to prostitution to survive. The HIV infection rate among them is almost 90 percent, according to the survey. In addition, promiscuity and rape were rampant among the more than 1.2 million Hutus who fled to neighboring countries. They returned to Rwanda after 2 1/2 years in refugee camps, where the HIV infection rate was thought to be 8.5 percent. AIDS is also believed to be prevalent among Rwandan troops who are fighting alongside rebels in neighboring Congo to eradicate remnants of the Hutu militia. Rucamihigo says Hutu militants raped his wife, but he believes he is to blame for giving her the disease. ``I was womanizing a lot before we got married,'' he says as he scratches the blisters covering his forehead — evidence of Kaposi's sarcoma, the AIDS-related skin cancer that is slowly enveloping him. ``The only comfort is that our 3-year-old baby is negative.'' Rucamihigo says his illness forced him to quit his job at the Ministry of Agriculture and he cannot afford medicine. He has joined the Organization of Persons with HIV/AIDS, a new group in Kigali that lobbies for better care. ``Here, we're abandoned to ourselves,'' he says. ``If you're HIV-positive, nobody has any need for you anymore.'' TOP STORIES Merck May Have AIDS Breakthrough AIDS Program Targets Latinos AIDS Sweeps Across Rwanda RECENT STORIES Reasons for HIV Rebound Explored Africa Seeks Affordable AIDS Drugs Annan Seeks Help To Decide UN Role AP Corrects Minorities-AIDS Story LINKS National Centers for Disease Control Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 11th International Conference on AIDS and STDS in Africa home ] us news ] world ] business ] sports ] weather ] search ] help ] Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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