Ugandan AIDS bodies and campaigners have warned that the \u201cugly clauses\u201d of an HIV bill passed by Parliament\u00a0late Tuesday [13 May 2014], which includes\u00a0the criminalisation of the \u201cwilful and intentional\u201d transmission of the disease, will see many in this\u00a0East African country \u201cshun the healthcare system\u201d.<\/p>\n
Activists are urging President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the 25-page HIV Prevention and Management Bill into law, describing certain parts as \u201cpoison\u201d and a \u201cgiant leap backwards in the global struggle against HIV\/AIDS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uganda has been described as a model when it comes to public policy responses to challenges posed by the HIV epidemic in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
But clause 41 of the legislation, which was\u00a0drafted in 2008,\u00a0prescribes\u00a0a maximum\u00a010 years in jail, a fine of about five million Ugandan shillings (1,980 dollars) or both for anyone who \u201cwilfully and intentionally transmitting HIV\/AIDS to another person\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the most controversial part of the legislation in the eyes of non-governmental organisations\u00a0and civil society, but was adopted unanimously by members of parliament last week. Another clause prescribes a fine or\u00a0a maximum\u00a0five years in jail for those convicted of \u201cattempted transmission\u201d.<\/p>\n
Prevalence rates for HIV\/AIDS in Uganda dropped from 18 percent in 1992 to 6.4 percent in 2005. But the 2011\u00a0National AIDS Indicator Survey,<\/a>\u00a0carried out by the Ministry of Health (MOH), showed HIV prevalence rates at 7.3 percent, with 130,000 new infections annually. More than two-thirds of Ugandans have not been tested for HIV\/AIDS, according to the research.<\/p>\n Dianah Nanjeho, a communications consultant at Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV\/AIDS (UGANET<\/a>), which works with a coalition of 40 organisations, said there were already high levels of self-stigma and external stigma experienced by those with HIV. Once the bill is enacted, people will \u201crun underground\u201d instead of getting tested, she warned.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only path by which someone gets onto treatment is by taking a HIV test. People who\u00a0don\u2019t know their status are going to shun the health system and say \u2018look I can\u2019t go to take a HIV test because the results are going to be displayed in court some day,\u2019\u201d she told IPS.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will have someone who is HIV positive in the docks but without any justice system to fend for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Nanjeho pointed to the current case of Rosemary Namubiru, who has been labeled the \u201ckiller nurse\u201d by local press who accuse the HIV-infected medical worker of deliberately injecting her blood into a two-year-old patient, in January. AIDS groups claim the reality is that Namubiru, 64, had an accident and is the victim of stigma.<\/p>\n \u201cIn that courtroom you would see every single person that is living with HIV looking down and saying this could be me, you know,\u201d said Nanjeho.<\/p>\n UGANET argues that section\u00a0171 of the Penal Code<\/a>, which prescribes a seven-year jail term for \u201cany person who unlawfully or negligently does any act which he has reason to believe to be likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life\u201d, is sufficient to prosecute \u201cmalicious transmitters of HIV\u201d,\u00a0among others.<\/p>\n The MOH\u2019s AIDS Control Programme does not support the criminalisation of transmission clause in the bill, nor does it have the backing of the\u00a0Uganda AIDS Commission<\/a>,\u00a0an arm of the President\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Scientists from the\u00a0Uganda Virus Research Institute<\/a>\u00a0and Uganda\u2019s\u00a0Joint Clinical Research Centre<\/a>\u00a0have advised that it will be too hard to manage issues of proof, that is whether a particular person deliberately infected another with HIV, and that there are other effective programming options.\u00a0Human Rights Watch and other rights groups\u00a0have said the bill is \u201cdiscriminatory and will impede the fight against AIDS\u201d.<\/p>\n But Sam Okuonzi, an MP and medical doctor, said the existing law was \u201cnot enough\u201d, stressing there had been cases of people spreading HIV intentionally before it was drafted.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said \u2018we cannot die alone, we must die with some people\u2019 so they went around and started spreading this disease to people who were innocent, who did not know their HIV status, vulnerable people,\u201d he told IPS.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in town here with money would go to the villages and start preying on young girls.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has happened. This [bill] did not come out of the blue. What is contentious about this?\u201d<\/p>\n AIDS bodies are also upset about clauses of the bill which empowers medical workers to disclose a person\u2019s HIV status to a third party. This, they say, is a \u201cclear violation of human rights and confidentiality\u201d and \u201crepresents an institutionalised form of stigma and discrimination.\u201d Another provision provides for mandatory testing of pregnant women and their partners, along with the victims of sexual offences.<\/p>\n HIV\/AIDS in Uganda has been described as having a \u201cgendered face\u201d. According to the 2011 Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey, HIV prevalence is higher among women (8.3 percent) than among men (6.1 percent). Prevalence among young women is markedly higher than among men, except for youth age 15 to 17.<\/p>\n These clauses in the bill could lead to women, often the first to find out their HIV status, being subjected to violence or even death at the hands of their partners who accuse them of \u201cbringing HIV into the home\u201d, campaigners caution.<\/p>\n