While being disabled can be a frustrating experience, the burden of being HIV positive is adding to the already isolated lifestyles of many disabled people in Uganda.
Disabled people are quietly devastated by HIV/AIDS, despite the advances Uganda has achieved in treatment and prevention.
Their reluctance to speak publicly about the AIDS epidemic for fear of being stigmatised has hampered their ability to fight the stigma.
Santa Otto is a disabled person who is HIV positive. She says she never wanted to tell anyone about her status because she said she feared being asked how she acquired the
HIV virus.
Otto says the silence about the HIV status of disabled persons stems from misconceptions about the sexuality of disabled persons as they think disabled people are not sexually active and are free from infection.
Patricia Joyce Okwir, the Assistant Project coordinator of the National Union of Disabled Persons in Uganda (NUDIPU) Gulu branch, said that many people view HIV/ AIDS among people with disabilities as a curse from God, adding it’s the reason NUDIPU launched an awareness campaign to demystify the views that people with disabilities are not sexually active and are free from infection.
On a related matter, members of the clergy have been asked to increase their efforts to sensitize married couples about the importance of stable families. Addressing the members of the Mothers Union in West Buganda diocese, Bishop Godfrey Makumbi said that he is dismayed by reports that HIV/AIDS is increasing among married couples. The Bishop said that the increasing prevalence of HIV among married people is among other things due to domestic violence. Bishop Makumbi says that there should be a concerted effort to ensure the HIV/AIDS reduces among the people of God.
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