Globe and Mail Examines ‘Unacknowledged’ Ugandan AIDS Epidemic ‘Fueled’ by War
Toronto's Globe and Mail on Tuesday in the second article in a series examined the "largely unacknowledged" HIV/AIDS epidemic in the northern region of Uganda that has been "fueled" by the country's 18-year war. Although HIV prevalence among adults in Uganda's general population is 6.2% and the nation is a "darling of donor countries," the HIV prevalence rate in the country's northern region is 11.9% and rising, according the Christian aid group World Vision, the Globe and Mail reports. The country's war with the Lord's Resistance Army, an insurgency group, has made it "almost impossible" to get condoms, education, treatment and HIV testing services to the region's population, more than 90% of whom are displaced and living in "squalid camps," the Globe and Mail reports. According to UNICEF estimates, approximately 20,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since the beginning of the war, and the young women taken by the group are "used not only for cooking and carrying but also for sex as soon as they reach puberty," the Globe and Mail reports. About 90% of women who return after being abducted have contracted a sexually transmitted disease, and World Vision estimates that 50% of the women test HIV-positive (Nolen, Globe and Mail, 4/26). The complete article is available online.
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