Health GAP Home | Health GAP Press Center


    Health GAP (Global Access Project)
    www.healthgap.org

    Letter to Ugandan government officials

    August 30, 2005


    Honorable Francis Butagira, Permanent Representative to the United Nations
    Honorable Jim Muhwezi, Minister of Health, Uganda
    Honorable Sam Kuteesa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uganda

    Hand delivered to Uganda Permanent Mission to the United Nations and sent via fax and email.

    Dear Sirs,

    Uganda has been a model to the world for combating HIV. President Museveni and the Ugandan government deserve credit for championing comprehensive, science-based HIV prevention policies in the 1990s that increased condom use and helped break the silence and stigma around sexual transmission of HIV. Unfortunately, the Ugandan government has since downplayed the importance of condom use and comprehensive, science-based HIV prevention policies and instead, misleadingly attributed reductions in HIV prevalence to increased rates of sexual abstinence. The expansion of unproven abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and the inaction and silence on the part of the government since the national recall of condoms have threatened the previous success that Uganda has had and continues to put thousands of Ugandans at risk of HIV infection every day.

    In solidarity with the the people of Uganda, I urge you to:

  • RELEASE THE CONDOMS: Immediately release the millions of condoms in storage in Uganda, repeal taxes on imported condoms and ensure that the price of branded condoms is restored to the price before the Engabu recall, and take action to restore public confidence in the effectiveness of condoms by way of public education campaigns.

  • STOP ABSTINENCE-ONLY PROGRAMS: Redirect funding for unproven, censorship based abstinence-only programs to science-based comprehensive programs that provide information about all available methods of HIV prevention--including condoms--proven to have already worked in Uganda.

  • RESIST U.S. STRINGS: The Bush Administration is playing politics with the lives of Ugandans by exporting abstinence-only programs. These programs have been an abject failure in the U.S. and have not shown any success in delaying young people's sexual debut, according to the U.S. government's own research. By promoting these programs, the Bush administration is ignoring public health and forcing its own conservative agenda on Uganda.

    The Ugandan government must stand up for public health and ensure that the Ugandan response to HIV places science over ideology and people's lives over politics.

    Sincerely,

    Sharonann Lynch
    Director of International Policy

    #30#


    Back to Top