"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."- Malcom X
----- Original Message -----
From: uga749d
To: Jesse George Alecho ; [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2003 1:38 AM
Subject: ***WHY JUST NOW??** Mothers reject free HIV drugs
Fellow Citizens,
Our fellow women have a right to suspect any "kind" moves taken by the dictatorship - especially right now when the dictatorship has intesified, through many different methods, his systematic massacre of the people of Uganda.
Secondly, "DON'T DO TO OTHERS WHAT YOU DON'T WANT OTHERS TO DO TO YOU" . M7 himself knows how he turned our medical services, and he now fears his own special formulae will be used on him.
So, why should others be expected to trust the system?
Best regards,
Nyar'Onyango
*****************
----- Original Message -----
From: Jesse George Alecho
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 8:46 AM
Subject: Mothers reject free HIV drugs
Netters
This is sad for Uganda. However what do you expect these women to think, if their President cannot trust the medical establishment in his own country.
Jesse
Mothers reject free HIV drugs
By Badru D. Mulumba
Oct 24, 2003
KAMPALA - Aids officials are puzzled by pregnant women who reject drugs that can prevent HIV infection to their babies. To be eligible for treatment, the mother must take the HIV test; then, she must kiss goodbye to breastfeeding.
But pregnant women, Dr David Kihumuro Apuuli, the director general Uganda Aids Commission, said yesterday, are declining HIV tests.
Others who are confirmed HIV positive turn down the free offers of Nevirapine, a drug which reduces the mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the virus that causes Aids, by more than 50 percent, and continuing with breastfeeding.
HIV is spread from pregnant women to their babies during birth, or through breastfeeding.
"You go to a clinic and tell them that, 'we can protect your children from HIV, can you accept to be tested?' If there are 100 women, you find only 20 accepting," Kihumuro said.
"There is resistance of course, there is stigma, [and] in other [cases] permission from the husband must be got," he said during the weekly Cabinet media briefing at the President's Office in Nakasero.
Yesterday's briefing comes ahead of the 11th international conference for people living with HIV/Aids at Speke Resort Munyonyo from October 26 - 30. "When you take the drugs, you must not breastfeed," he said, "and in our culture, if you don't breastfeed, people start pointing fingers."
Despite this, two of every 10 people receiving Aids treatment in Africa are in Uganda.
Some 28 million Africans are infected, three million require treatment, but only 50,000 are reportedly treated. Uganda was the first African country to use antiretrovirals - the drugs that delay the onset of full-blown Aids - in 1996.
The Aids boss also said that more ARVs could arrive as early as January - the expected starting date for United States's proposed $15 billion, five-year programme to fight Aids in 14 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
The countries are expected to meet in January to discuss modalities of the programme.
The Aids Commission is already evaluating bidders to supply more drugs. The first batch of drugs will be worth $3 million (Shs 6 billion). "Eventually, it is hoped that when all the money comes, it [treatment] would be free," Kihumuro said.
Aids drugs cost between $30 (Shs 60,000) and $300 (Shs 600,000) per month.
© 2003 The Monitor
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