By DICTA ASIIMWE
Following its failure to stop President Yoweri Museveni from assenting to a law that criminalises the intentional transmission of HIV, the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) is advising its partners to ignore the legislature and instead adhere to the East African Community HIV/Aids Prevention and Management Act that the country has also ratified.
Vinand Nantulya, the board chair of UAC, said that the HIV/Aids Prevention and Control Act that parliament passed in May was flawed.
It requires mandatory testing for victims of sexual offences, pregnant women and their partners. It also criminalises transmission of HIV, while medical workers are required to release results to sexual partners of HIV-positive persons.
The law from EALA on the other hand says testing should never be mandatory, outlaws discrimination and guarantees rights to privacy.
“It is confusing to the implementers since one requires non-discrimination of people living with HIV/Aids while the other recommends the opposite; I would advise our partners to apply the EAC law because the Uganda one is wrong,” said Prof Nantululya.
Vulnerable groups
The Uganda Human Rights Commission and UNAids argue that the criminalisation of HIV/Aids would drive vulnerable populations underground and hurt Uganda’s fight against the disease.
Asia Russell, the director of international policy at Health Gap said this would mean sex workers, gays and pregnant women among others will stop testing for HIV/Aids because the only way one can be accused of having intentionally transmitted the disease is by knowing their status.
Statistics from the UAC show that new HIV infections in Uganda have reduced — from 170,00 in 2011 to 140,000 currently. The number of babies born with HIV reduced to 8,000 in 2013 from 28,000 in 2011.
“We achieved this by encouraging and not forcing mothers to go for HIV testing, so what is this law meant to achieve?” asked Prof Nantulya.
But Chris Baryomunsi, a Member of Parliament, said that the argument that the law could worsen Uganda’s HIV fight was untrue as other countries such as Kenya had passed a similar law and reduced infections.
Kenya has a prevalence rate of 6 per cent compared with Uganda’s 7.4 per cent.