Uganda urges world to follow its big abstinence success

Through its abstinence thrust, HIV infections have had an incredible 24 percent decline in twelve years. From 30 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2003. No other country in the world has ever recorded such astounding success in  decline rate. On Friday July 16, 2004 the six-day 15th International AIDS Conference, in Bangkok Thailand, came to an end.  Clearly, by far, the most compelling presentation at the event, with respect to proof of the most effective means of dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, was quite an easy pick.

On the second day of the Conference, Monday July 12, Ugandan President, His Excellency Yoweri Museveni, told the international audience, “The key to my country’s successful fight against the HIV epidemic is abstinence, not condoms.”  And, boy, did His Excellency have the compelling and sobering statistics to back up his claim! Uganda is the only country in the AIDS-riddled Sub-Saharan Africa, which boasts of a reduction in the HIV prevalence rate. HIV infections have had an incredible 24 percent decline in twelve years. From 30 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2003. No other country in the world has ever recorded such astounding decline. This, according to the Ugandan President, is purely as a result of the efficacy of their vibrant abstinence thrust. Last year there was a record high 5,000,000 new HIV infections globally. It was the worst year for HIV/AIDS infections since the virus was first identified in 1980. But even in the face of this extremity, Uganda, through its vigorous abstinence programme, showed a steady decline.

“Condoms are not the ultimate solution to fighting the AIDS scourge,” the Ugandan President asserted. “Abstinence and loving relationships in marriage, based on trust are even more crucial,” he affirmed. Museveni told the near 20,000 delegates that he views condoms as “an improvisation and not a solution.” He issued a clarion call for “optimal relationships based on love and trust instead of institutionalised mistrust, which the condom is all about.” The undeniable fact remains: Uganda is a classic success story, and the message that has fuelled this success is that of abstinence and faithfulness within marriage. Not condoms! A Washington Post report (July 19, 2004) notes that elsewhere in Africa, there is no clear link between the availability of condoms and reduction in HIV. The report pointed to four countries Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe, which have a generous amount of condoms, yet a very high rate of HIV infections. The United States Medical Institute of Sexual Health, awarded the Ugandan President and his wife the Hero Award 2004 in recognition of their successful fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, at a conference held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC from June 17-19.

According to Ugandan’s First Lady, who received the award on behalf of her husband, the massive abstinence programme was spearheaded by the President himself, and “targeted the vulnerable youth to encourage abstinence from sex and faithfulness in marriage.” She added that the initiatives undertaken in Uganda can be effectively implemented in other countries. A report from an internet magazine The Physician, which is linked to the United States Medical Institute for Sexual Health, stated that the Ugandan President and First Lady “were world leaders in spearheading a thrust which models behavioural change as a solution for a raging HIV epidemic.” It added, “As a result of their call for sexual abstinence for unmarried individuals and faithfulness within marriage, 95 percent of Ugandans in the year 2000 had either zero or only one sexual partner. Primarily, because of this, HIV rates have declined by 66 percent in Uganda over the last decade and a half.” Edward Green, a Harvard medical anthropologist and author, agrees that Uganda’s success in cutting HIV infections depended crucially on teaching abstinence.

One would think that with all the hype about the worsening AIDS pandemic which preceded the Bangkok Conference, the learned delegates would have gladly embraced the world’s greatest HIV/AIDS success story, as a window of hope and opportunity for the wider global community. But, as this column stated just prior to the Bangkok Conference, “only if horses could fly!” The major beneficiaries of the worsening HIV/AIDS epidemic, as this column had also pointed out are the condom manufacturers, and those who market the anti-retroviral and other drugs. As this writer predicted, their commercial interests were immensely represented at the six-day conference.

The commerce-driven predators brazenly attempted to impose their sinister agenda upon the international body of delegates, advancing some ridiculous and irrational “reasons” for their dubious position. Each of the attempts to hoodwink however, looked increasingly preposterous, being starkly exposed and sharply rebuked by the beacon light of Uganda’s sparkling abstinence strategy success. It’s indeed a shame, for supposedly civilised human beings, in this day and age, to so blatantly put the mighty dollar before human life, even while their hypocrisy is so completely unmasked. But, obviously, it’s only the extremely na?ve and gullible who will be gobbled by their grisly greed. The wise will “abstinise” not “condomise!”