PHM-Exch> Anti-gay bill in Uganda could have disastrous public health implications

[Patrick Wamukulu]

FYI>>

Anti-gay bill in Uganda could have disastrous public health implications
18 Feb 2014
Bill would exacerbate stigma, exclusion and increase risk of HIV infection,
activists and researchers warn

Public health program managers and activists, many of whom receive support
from the Global Fund, have warned of potentially catastrophic consequences
for reducing Uganda's HIV infection rate should President Yoweri Museveni
follow through on a plan announced on 14 February to sign into law a
repressive bill effectively banning homosexuality.

The Anti Homosexuality Bill was passed by parliament in December. Earlier
versions of the bill would have imposed the death penalty on individuals
found guilty of 'aggravated homosexuality'; that penalty, in the version
before Museveni, was changed to life in prison.

Most worrisome to those who are implementing the more than $130 million in
activities funded by Global Fund grants are the terms of the bill that
threaten harsh penalties for those who would promote or aid and abet
homosexuality: a category that could include government- and externally
funded programs providing essential services for men who have sex with men
and other key populations.

Dozens of Ugandan and international clinicians, researchers and academics
signed a letter dated 6 February encouraging that Museveni veto the bill,
arguing that not only did it violate the national constitution to protect
the freedoms of all Ugandans but also contradicted scientific evidence.

Further, the letter <http://ahb-openletter.org/>, which bore among others
the signature of the UN Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, who is also the
former vice president of Uganda, Dr Sepciosa Wandira Kazibwe, argued that
the bill would "further exacerbate the marginalization, discrimination and
exclusion of people known to be, or suspected of being homosexual," meaning
they would be less able to access health services and thus more at risk of
infection or of infecting other people with HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases.

HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is estimated at 13%: more
than three times the average prevalence among men who have sex exclusively
with women (4.1%) and nearly twice the national generalized prevalence of
7.3%.

Uganda has also experienced a steady rise in HIV incidence since 2005,
despite widely acclaimed early success in anti-retroviral treatment and
prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

The bill will also provide cover - based on a presupposed fear or
institutionalized stigma - for health workers to discriminate in the
provision of medical services to members of the LGBT community.

The bill's passage into law is likely to have significant direct
implications for both outreach activities and service delivery supported by
the Global Fund.

It is also likely to eviscerate any progress made in implementing a Key
Affected Populations pilot program in Uganda. This pilot, funded by the
Global Fund Secretariat, is designed to strengthen engagement of men who
have sex with men, sex workers, fishing communities and other key
populations in shaping the 2014 HIV concept note under the new funding
model. The pilot is also designed to strengthen representation of, and
accountability to, key affected populations on Uganda's country
coordination mechanism.
http://www.aidspan.org/gfo_article/anti-gay-bill-uganda-could-have-disastrous-public-health-implications
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