Ugandan cleric urges churches to step up war against AIDS
By Yinka Aderibigbe
AN Ugandan Anglican priest, Canon Gideon Byamugisha, has said religious leaders stand a unique chance of stopping the rising prevalence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country.
Byamugisha, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Lagos, said the war could be won if church leaders are ready to purge themselves of the prejudices associated with the disease and provide healthy support to infected persons.
The priest, who had been at the vanguard of bringing hope to HIV/AIDS victims from the pulpit since he tested positive in 1992, said HIV/AIDS been found over the years to be amenable, manageable and controllable with the right information, and the requisite skills.
According to him, many who suffered from the disease have died "preventable and controllable" deaths, and many continue to suffer in pain because the necessary supportive environment are denied them.
He noted that the Church, which already had structures and communication infrastructure even in the most remote rural areas which are unreachable by other agencies, should begin to take more than a passing interest in the issue of HIV/AIDS.
"Pastors are revered figures in the communities in which they are serving. They are also the only people who could have all the age groups gathered under one roof. So what they need is the right information on HIV/AIDS which they need to use in counselling their laity", Byamugisha said.
According to him, his experience in the past 12 years since he began to take more interest in the disease shows that several factors other than sexual infidelity among partners are responsible for the proliferation of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa as against the rest of the world.
Earlier in his key note address at the public lecture on HIV/AIDS, organised by the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), Byamugisha said that though Africa does not account for more than 8.6 per cent of the global population, it accounts for over 8.70 per cent of cases of adults living with HIV/AIDS; has a large percentage of its women infected with AIDS and records about 90 per cent of HIV/AIDS-related orphan cases.
Findings, he further pointed out, have shown that 60 per cent of infected women in sub-Saharan Africa have been faithful to only one partner and have not been known to be sexually promiscuous.
Citing himself as an example, he said though he was shocked when he learnt his wife had died of HIV/AIDS- related sickness in 1992, he knew as a religious leader that he could not have contracted the disease through extra-marital relationships.
He suggested that inoculation, injection, blood transfusion and other unsafe practices are other windows through which the virus infects millions globally.
He, therefore, challenged religious leaders to begin to assist in tackling the disease by developing a "task-focused" policy on the pandemic, showing more commitment to the welfare of infected members of the Church and integrating HIV/AIDS in the lithurgy, workshop and other faith-related activities of their churches.
A renowned resource person in the Anglican Diocese of Namirembe in Uganda, Byamugisha said his country had witnessed a sharp drop in the prevalence of the pandemic because of the concerted efforts of all, including government, to tackle the disease.
"Ugandans have joined the league of nations who have proved the human capacity to subdue the virus. There is hope that Nigeria, and indeed other spots in Africa, can do same if there is more collective effort.
"The greatest challenge is that future generations would ask what roles religious leaders played in bringing down the prevalence of a symptom that continues to kill in its millions despite the avalanche of information on how to prevent or manage it," he added.
He, therefore, called on his colleagues in Nigeria to stop wishing away the reality of the disease, but to brace up and join hands in preaching about it and improving the quality of information available on it.
