Uganda: debating

A debate has flared up in Uganda over male circumcision as a means to prevent AIDS. According to the UN news agency IRIN, Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president, worrys that recent research results might prove harmful in the fight against the immunodeficiency pandemic. Museveni complained that some people now claim that male circumcision prevents AIDS even in the case of reckless behaviour. Such messages send wrong signals to the local communities, breeding apathy in the fight against AIDS.

Several weeks ago, researchers in the USA concluded that the risk of becoming infected with HIV is much lower for circumcised men than it is for uncircumcised men. The scientists stressed, however, that circumcision only offers added protection and cannot replace other preventive measures (see D+C/E+Z, 2/2007, p. 49).

Uganda is considered a model country in the fight against AIDS because in the past 15 years it has succeeded in significantly reducing the infection rate. Museveni pointed out that this success is due to his governments’ clear messages of AIDS being a fatal disease which can only be prevented by responsible sexual behaviour. (ell)