AFRICA/UGANDA - AIDS kills more than civil war in northern Uganda which has twice the number of HIV/AIDS sufferers than the whole country out together

Wednesday, 29 September 2004

Rome (Fides Service) - In northern Uganda AIDS kills three times more people than the civil war there which has raged for 18 years. According to a British humanitarian organisation the percentage of infected people in northern Uganda is double the national average 11.9 compared to 6.2. In Gulu, the heart of the revolt, 69% of the deaths are connected with AIDS, three times more than the number who perish in the fighting.
But as in all poor countries the revolt has its roots in economic and social marginalisation and in turn it has created even more poverty and a total lack of basic public health care.
Adolescents are forced to sell themselves for a piece of bread or soap. Children seek safety at missions and in urban centres from night incursions of rebels who are wont to maltreat them in many ways including sexual abuse. All this in total moral and material poverty.
Much is done to help at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, known as “Lacor Hospital”. A charity institution run by the Catholic diocese of Gulu which provides medical care for all especially the poor and weaker sectors, women, children, people suffering from chronic diseases. 63,62% of patients in hospitals and health care centres are children under six.
In the past 15 years the hospital has treated almost 2.5 million patients.

1996 to 2003
out patients and in patients

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
out-patients 128,901 125,955 138,500 191,804 179,413 181,406 190,459 211,303
in patients 13,437 15,377 15,438 17,649 17,065 19,250 27,448 33,096
total contacts
142,338 141,332 153,938 209,453 196,478 200,656 218,077 244,399

(AP) (29/9/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:22; Parole:309)


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