Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; Monday September 21, 1998
Henry Wasswa, Associated Press Writer
Yoweri Museveni said Ugandans traditionally shunned extramarital sex, and one tribe used to poke out the eyes of anyone who had sex before marriage.
"This sexual laxity existing today is a colonial phenomenon," Museveni said at a conference on caring for those infected with the disease. "We have lost the traditional values, and yet we do not have a sophisticated health network of the modern world."
Two-thirds of the world's AIDS cases are in Africa, and about 2 million Ugandans - roughly 10 percent of the population - carries the virus that causes AIDS, according to government statistics.
Dr. Elizabeth Madra, director of the government AIDS control program, said up to 500,000 people have died of AIDS-related diseases since the first case was diagnosed in Uganda in 1983.
Uganda now has one of the world's most aggressive programs to contain the disease, and has achieved considerable success. A World Bank report released last year said the percentage of women in Kampala, the capital, infected with the virus has fallen to 16 percent from 30 percent in 1991.
Museveni called on governments in Africa to be more willing to tackle the disease, which has infected 20.8 million people in sub-Saharan Africa of a worldwide total of 30.6 million, according to a report from UNAIDS released in 1997.
"African governments must be open and accept the challenge in order to be able to fight the epidemic. Uganda was among the first countries to be open about AIDS and displayed a slowing down," he said.
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