AIDS in Uganda as a gender issue.

Abstract

This qualitative evaluation is based on data gathered during field trips to Uganda between 1981 and 1988. The first part of the paper describes the official view on prevalence (in 1988 Uganda, with 5455 reported cases, had the third highest prevalence of AIDS in Africa with the disease transmitted largely through heterosexual relations), the official view on the disease origin (the index case of AIDS occurred in 1983 in Kasensero village in the Rakai district), and the official control efforts (acknowledgement and publication of the magnitude of the epidemic and a 5-year prevention and control program with educational, medical, and epidemiological measures). The second part of the paper discusses public perceptions towards AIDS and its victims and highlights beliefs that assign a supernatural etiology to AIDS, social discrimination of AIDS victims, the consequences of the disease on the family and on sexuality and nuptiality. The next section looks at the impact of AIDS on health seeking behavior and the delivery of health care and notes that the private health delivery system has probably contributed to the spread of AIDS because of the use of unsterilized instruments, that unscrupulous practitioners are claiming cures, and that some people avoid health facilities for fear of infection. The fourth topic considered is the risk of HIV transmission because of sexual harassment perpetrated against women. This is followed by an assessment of 1) the affect of AIDS on women's reproductive rights and the controversy about transmission of the virus in breast milk, 2) the situation faced by women in high-risk professions, and 3) the acceptability of the condom. The paper ends by summarizing the policy and research implications revealed by this qualitative study.