For a long time Uganda
has been hailed as a success story in the fight against AIDS. A key factor in
the positive outcomes the country experienced was the strong political
leadership demonstrated early at highest level. However, the latest statistics
indicate an increase in HIV incidence, a cause for much concern.
HIV-injection nurse
sentenced to 3 years
Buganda Road Court finds Nurse Rosemary Namubiru,
64 (nurse who injected a 2 year old boy with her HIV-infected blood) guilty of
negligence with intention to infect someone with an infectious disease, and
sentences her to three years in jail.
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| Rosemary Namubiru in Court before she was sentenced to 3 yrs. Photo/ Nicholas Kajoba |
Court presided over by Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Olive
Kazaarwe Mukwaya on Monday convicted and sentenced Namubiru after she was found
guilty of unlawfully doing a negligent act of spreading the infectious disease.
“The accused person
was aware that she was living with the virus and then she carelessly went ahead
to inject the child,” Mukwaya said in a fully packed court.
Court passed its
judgment basing on the testimonies of prosecution witnesses 1, 2, 3, 7 and 9.
The witnesses pinned Namubiru, saying she was aware of her status that is why
she was not remorseful during trial.
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| Rosemary Namubiru arriving at Buganda Road Court before she was sentenced to 3 yrs. Photo/ Nicholas Kajoba |
They also said Namubiru used the same cannula knowing that
it would lead to the spread of HIV/AID.
Prosecution led by
Lillian Omara told court that Namubiru unlawfully and negligently injected a
baby with a needle contaminated with her HIV blood while knowing the action
could likely spread the infection of HIV, a disease dangerous to life.
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The nurse committed
the offence on January 17, 2014 at Victoria Medical Center, Lumumba in Kampala.
Deeply in love fiancée
tries to bribe doctor for HIV negative results
Barbara Kyalimpa (not real names) always swore that she will
never have sex until marriage, she kept herself a virgin even at the
University, because of the fear of HIV/AIDS.
When she meets the man of her dreams, successful, loving and caring, she
agrees to be his wife but only have sex after marriage. She also demanded for
an HIV/AIDS checkup before marriage.
Her fiancé John Mukulu (not real names) an army officer with
lots of money, was ready to have Barbara as his wife at any cost. John agrees
to have a medical checkup together with Barbara and after the test, the doctor
called one by one for counseling before delivering the results.
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| Relatives of Rose Namubiru crying Photo/ Nicholas Kajoba |
The Doctor asked Barbara if she had had unprotected sex with
John but her answer was no. The doctor advised Barbara not to do but come back
tomorrow and they have a chat. After counseling John, the Doctor gave the
couple the good news that they were both HIV negative.
John was so happy and requested Barbara to go and spend the
night at his home since both were negative and they would get married. But
since Barbara was too haunted by the Doctors’ demand for a private chat in
absence of John, she stuck to her values and requested John to take her to her
parent’s home.
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The following day Barbara woke up very early to go and meet
the doctor who informed her that John is HIV positive and had paid to have his
results say negative.
But since the
doctor is a Christian, he could not allow such an injustice to happen so he had
to tell Barbara the situation on ground and it was up to her to decide whether
to go ahead and marry John or counsel the wedding.
What will be the
likely impact of HIV specific criminalization on efforts to fight HIV/AIDS
transmission?
The HIV and AIDS prevention and Control bill 2010 is a
timely intervention in so far as it represents an affirmation of the State’s
commitment to continue the strong political leadership that has proved so
effective in the past.
However, while the idea of a law related to HIV/AIDS is
a welcome development, it can be a double edged sword where the law abandons
proven best practices in the epidemic.
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The penal code; Section 171 states
“Any person who unlawfully or negligently does any act which he has
reason to believe to be likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous
to life commits an offense and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.”
Evidence shows that efforts to use the law to deter sexual
transmission of HIV simply do not work. Even though criminalization and punishment
seems like it would pose a deterrent- two decade of implementing similar laws
in other countries shows that such laws do not have the desired effect of
changing behavior.
According to Uganda Aids Commission, criminalization of
transmission will be largely counterproductive and ineffective because Uganda’s
statistics show HIV is usually transmitted when HIV positive people do not know
that they are HIV positive.
There is urgent need to reach Ugandans with accurate
information, routine HIV testing and to promptly provide people with counseling
and treatment in order to ensure they remain healthy and do not transmit the
epidemic.
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The HIV epidemics in
Uganda- are we reducing HIV?
According to the Uganda AIDS indicator survey 2012, currently
an estimated 1.5million Ugandans (1.4 adults and 100,000 children) are living
with HIV and there are at least 140,000 new infections annually.
Although there has been a decline in averting new
infections, as a country we are at the most optune moment when we have started to
register major success and reversals of the negative trend.
The number of new infections has reported last year has
reduced to 140,000 from 160,000 in 2012.
The number of babies born with HIV dropped to about 9,000
last year compared to the 25-28,000 in 2011.
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| Parents of the boy who was injected with HIV. Photo/ Nicholas Kajoba |
The number of people put on anti-retroviral therapy has
increased to 600,000 up from 356000 in 2011; mortality rates due to AIDS and related
conditions dropped to 56,000 in 2013 compared to 66,000 in 2011.
The progress should continue and any obstacles that would
hinder further improvements should be removed.
The Uganda AIDS Commission and the Ministry of Health’s AIDS
Control Program do not support the criminalization of transmission clause in
the HIV bill.
According to Uganda research, when people know their status
they have a powers motivation to change their behavior and act responsibly
means that people living with HIV who find out their status, then take steps to
prevent spreading it to others. (Bunnell R. et al, 2006).
What are other legal
alternatives to criminalization of transmission?
The penal code has provisions of defilement, rape, assault
and negligence likely to spread a disease. All these provisions can be used to
punish intentional harmful acts related to HIV transmission
.
Other countries which have tried cases of transmission have
not used HIV specific criminal laws, but have relied on other penal code offence
of creating grievous bodily harm.
This law is not likely to be useful in practice because it
is virtually impossible to prove who contracted HIV first.
HIV specific criminalization laws intensify stigma and misinformation;
this is dangerous in a country where the majority of adults still lack comprehensive
information about HIV
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