International conference of PLWHAs: Indian delegate send home prematurely

[Guest guest]

Aids Meet Takes Toll On 'Poor' Delegates

The Monitor (Kampala)October 29, 2003.

Carolyne Nakazibwe, Munyonyo

Events at an international conference for people living with HIV/AIDS

here have shown the gulf in accessing treatment better than any paper

or presentation could ever have.

Delegates from poorer countries - who in most cases do not have

access to anti-retrovirals, the drugs that delay the onset of Aids -

have felt the bigger toll of the meetings and sessions at the 11th

International Conference for People Living with HIV/AIDS.

Three delegates have so far been admitted to Mulago Hospital and Case

Clinic in Kampala, while another has been sent home to India

prematurely.

Another delegate from Kenya is too frail to continue and doctors are

considering returning him home, but will not listen to suggestions to

have him admitted.

" This is a conference of people living with HIV, so you expect some

to fall sick any time. We are mostly getting cases of diarrhoea,

pneumonia and dehydration, " Dr Mukasa, who heads the

conference's medical committee, told The Monitor yesterday. The

conference started on Sunday and closes on Thursday.

Mukasa said that delegates from rich countries came with their anti-

retroviral drugs which they take daily, and have not been having

health problems at the conference.

However, he said, many delegates from Uganda and other African

countries as well as the Caribbean and Cambodia, are making more

trips to the first aid room with complications. " Many of them are not

on the life saving drugs and this is taking its toll, but those on

drugs have no problem, " Mukasa said.

A team of five doctors and two clinical officers from the Red Cross

with two ambulances are on stand-by to cater for the basic health

needs of the more than 800 delegates living with HIV, the virus that

causes Aids.

Mukasa appealed to government not to politicise the coming of free

Aids drugs - and revealed that stigma is undermining the efforts to

provide much needed treatment. " Exposure is not controlled at

government facilities and stigma is failing the process, " Mukasa said.

Only about 17,000 Ugandans living with HIV/Aids can afford the life-

prolonging drugs, out of 150,000 in urgent need. Government, however,

plans to provide the drugs free of charge to at least 70 percent of

those in need, Health minister Jim Muhwezi said at the conference

opening on Sunday.

The man behind the conference, Maj. Ruranga Rubaramira, told The

Monitor in an interview yesterday that the meeting also aims at

helping reduce stigma toward people infected with, and by, the

virus. " There are many people who are still new. They have a right to

overcome their fear, " he said, in reference to many of the sessions

being closed to journalists.

" Some of the stigma is self-inflicted; if they get the confidence to

face the challenges of living with HIV and overcome the bad attitude

from society, they will defeat Aids, " Rubaramira, who has lived with

the virus for 20 years, said. He said the more people living with

HIV/Aids meet and hear positive stories like his, the more they

believe they can actually live. Ms Beatrice Were, another Ugandan

delegate, agreed. " The conference is good for us, " she said.

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