KAMPALA, Uganda
In the Ugandan capital of
Kampala, the usually buzzing HIV/AIDS treatment center is almost empty days
after parliament enacted a controversial anti-gay law.
According to staff, the usual
daily influx of approximately 50 patients has dried up, antiretroviral drugs
pile up unused.
A resident medical officer at
a US-funded clinic, warned that new waves of HIV infections were forming as
vulnerable people stayed away from treatment centers, afraid of being
identified and arrested under the new laws.
"The LGBT community in
Uganda is on lockdown now," he said. "They don't have
preventive services. They cannot access condoms ... they cannot access ARTS
(antiretroviral)."
Under the bill, which
President Yoweri Museveni signed into law last week, gay sex is punishable by
life in prison while "aggravated homosexuality", including
the transmission of HIV, is punishable by death.
Until this year, the Kampala
clinic had been a beacon of success for the fight against HIV in Uganda, where
1.4 million people live with the virus and 17,000 die a year as a result of its
ravages, according to the Uganda AIDS Commission.
Now, when patients do come in,
it's often out of absolute necessity. The HIV cases presenting has thus become
more severe as people skip treatments.
A US official suggested that
the law would reverse the country's advancements in fighting HIV/AIDS.
That statement was rebuked by
Ugandan prime minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, who responded that the
government would ensure that prevention programs would remain accessible to
those that needed them.
Nonetheless, the trend of HIV
patients staying away from treatment centers is being mirrored on a national
level, according to Mary Borgman, country director for the US President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which funds the Kampala clinic and
about 80 other drop-in centers across Uganda.
She said fear had increasingly
been deterring people from coming in for treatment ever since the anti-gay bill
was introduced in parliament in March.
The people living with the
virus are not the only ones afraid of repercussions. Many medical officials are
reluctant to provide services to gay patients, as they fear being accused of
defending and promoting homosexuality.
Lillian Mworeko, the East
African regional coordinator for the International Community of Women living
with HIV/AIDS, said some providers feared that offering medical services to
LGBTQ patients could be classed as "promoting" homosexuality, an
offense punishable by 20 years in prison under the new law.
The Ugandan bill toughened up
an existing British colonial-era law, under which gay sex was already illegal.
Proponents say the new legislation is needed to counter what they allege are
efforts by LGBTQ Ugandans to recruit children into homosexuality.
The amended version signed by
Museveni didn't criminalize merely identifying as LGBTQ, as a previous version
did, and revised a measure that required people to report gay activity to only
oblige reporting when a child was involved.
Though acclaimed nationally by
public opinion and seen as a clear statement against the propagation
of "corrupt western mores" in African
societies, local activists have denounced the backwardness of the law, pointing
out that homosexuality existed in precolonial Africa, was accepted in most cultures
than others and was not considered unnatural or a sin.
"The majority of these
people, like transgender or queer people, have gone through a lot
already," shared a medical officer.
At the Kampala clinic, run by
local charity Icebreakers Uganda, one of the medical officers said he
understood the fears of LGBTQ people in Uganda who often endured painful lives,
featuring rejection by their families and arrests. - Reuters
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