By Badru D. Mulumba
Oct 3, 2003
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KAMPALA � First Lady Janet Museveni says that Africa�s future cannot depend on a sheath of rubber � a condom � in the fight against HIV/Aids, a US senator has said. The Chairman of the US Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs, Mr Lamar Alexander (Republican, Tennessee), said the views were gathered in August during a 10-day visit to Africa of a delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. According to yesterday�s State Department transcript, Alexander wrote about his discussion with Ms Museveni in the Washington Times newspaper. In the article, Alexander said that Uganda cut Aids infection from 30 percent to [less than] 8 percent by teaching abstinence (A), being faithful (B) and use of condoms (C). He said, in his article, that the firs lady, a born-again Christian who has run youth conferences to encourage abstinence, does not want too much reliance on condoms. �The first lady of Uganda, Janet Museveni, encourages A and B more than C: �I am not comfortable,� she says, �with the thought that the [fate] of an entire continent could depend upon a thin piece of rubber.� Teaching the �Ugandan formula� is among 10 suggestions by the senator to Mr Randall Tobias, whom President George W. Bush named to implement the five-year, $15 billion fund to fight HIV/Aids in 14 African and Caribbean countries. Uganda is amongst the beneficiaries. Many Aids activists believe that the ABC model is outdated in the fight against the disease. According to Alexander, training doctors, nurses and counsellors are the priority areas in the Aids fight. The money, the senator said, should provide cheaper drugs, encourage fast tests that give results in 20 minutes and provide needles and syringes. �Reused needles, contaminated blood and other unsafe health practices will cause at least 175,000 new Aids infections this year in sub-Saharan Africa,� he said. But he called for frugality. �Move fast, but don't spend the $15 billion too fast,� he said. �The African health-care system cannot absorb too much money too quickly.� The senator suggested using at least part of the money to dig wells. He says that 40 percent of Africans do not have access to fresh water. He cited Mozambique where diseases carried by unclean water reportedly are responsible for deaths of three to four children under five. �Since Aids destroys immune systems, victims of all ages live longer with clean water,� he said. The Monitor was not able to independently verify the story. The Presidential Press Secretary, Ms Mary Okurut, said she did not have any information on the matter. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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