Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - November 20, 2002
Hamis Kaheru
"These costs, more than a billion dollars, is what Uganda loses both directly and indirectly. This is more than what we earn from coffee," he said.
Museveni was opening the 36th Commonwealth Regional Health Ministers' Conference at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe.
About 33 delegates from 12 countries in East, Central and Southern Africa and representatives of the donor community, are attending the five-day conference.
Museveni did not explain how the costs were arrived at. But experts say direct costs are computed in terms of expenditure on drugs and funerals.
Indirect costs include hours lost by sick workers, loss of trained personnel and the burden of orphans and other dependants.
The president said the AIDS prevalence rate dropped from 30% in 1980s to 6.5% as a result of the Government's "popular approach" which involves mass education as compared to the technocrat's elitist approach of talking about health problems from their posh offices.
He said other diseases like malaria, some cancers, sleeping sickness and guinea worm were a result of "criminal negligence" by past governments.
He said the governments could have eliminated vectors like tsetse flies and mosquitoes or eradicated the diseases through immunisation.
Museveni said diseases which can be contained through preventive measures like education, immunisation, improved sanitation, hygiene and nutrition account for 90% of all sicknesses in the country.
He said the Government's focus in the strategy to fight diseases would centre on the promotion of primary health care.
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