Clerics' condom stand at odds with national policy

A leading AIDS activist organisation in Tanzania has expressed concern at the country's religious leaders recent statement that they were implacably against the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a key tenet of national policy on tackling the disease. However, it also considered that position would have little impact on the pattern of infection since, it said, there was already a high level of HIV/AIDS awareness among Tanzanians. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) acts by gradually destroying the immune system of the infected person, such that he or she cannot fight off infections as before. Eventually the infected person may lose weight and become ill with diseases like persistent severe diarrhoea, fever or pneumonia, or skin cancer; he or she has then developed Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV infection is passed through sexual relationships, infected blood or blood products, sharing needles and from mother to child. If used properly during sexual relations, good quality condoms act as a tough extra skin, so that the virus (and other sexually transmitted diseases) cannot get through. At a meeting in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, last week, more than 70 representatives of various religious organisations declared that "all holy books" across the world were against the use of condoms, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. The clerics would, therefore, discourage their followers from using condoms, they said. Lucy Ng'ang'a, programme director of the AIDS NGOs Network in East Africa (ANNEA) told IRIN on Friday that the rejection of condoms by religious leaders was "just a first reaction" which was not informed by the reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. "I don't fear any sudden increase in infection rates because it is a bit late for first reactions," she said. "A lot of people will dismiss it, because levels of awareness [about HIV/AIDS] are now much higher. A while ago, such statements could have had a big impact on the population." "We have been asking them to sing the song we are singing - because each of us has a role - and not to fight us," Ng'ang'a added. The joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, known as UNAIDS, has estimated that the number of Tanzanian adults and children living with the HIV virus at the end of 1999 was 1.3 million, and that the rate of infection among adults was about 8.09 percent. [see country fact sheet at http://www.unaids.org/] Tanzania's National Policy on HIV/AIDS, a document published in November 2001, said the number of reported cases of those living with HIV in the country had risen to 600,000 in 1999 from the first three cases reported in 1983. Beyond the reported cases, an estimated two million people were now believed to be living with HIV, some 70 percent of whom are between 25 and 49 years old, according to the 45-page Tanzania - National Policy on HIV/AIDS, which supports and promotes the use of condoms as a key method of curbing HIV transmission. [see http://www.tzonline.org/] "There is overwhelming evidence about the efficacy and effectiveness of condoms when used correctly and consistently in the prevention of HIV transmission," that document states. "Good quality condoms shall be procured and made easily available and affordable. The private sector shall be encouraged to procure and market good quality condoms so that they are easily accessible in urban and rural areas." The clerics' rejection of condoms as a means of HIV prevention came just a day after Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa warned the workshop that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania may be much higher than previously imagined, and urged religious leaders to educate and sensitise their congregations on the need to protect themselves against HIV infection. Mkapa said that at least 200 infants being delivered in the country every month were already infected with the HIV virus, and that 300,000 of some 1.1 million children who were orphaned by AIDS had themselves died from the disease already, the Guardian reported on Thursday, 14 March. UNAIDS estimated the number of children who had lost their mother or both parents to AIDS (while under 15) at 1.1 million, and that some 667,000 such children were still alive and under 15 years at the end of 1999. "We must refrain from depending too much on available statistics regarding the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Tanzanian must understand profoundly the terrible effects of HIV's infection," it quoted the president as saying. According to Mkapa, Tanzania on average spends about 300,000 shillings (almost US $320) on meeting the medical cost of each HIV patient, a cost the country could ill afford. "The government has a duty of enlightening every citizen on how one can be infected with HIV and precautionary measures to avoid infections. But, eventually, it is an individual's responsibility to decide either to protect or to destroy himself or herself," Mkapa added. The national policy paper has attributed the high transmission rate of HIV in Tanzania to poverty. On the one hand, it says, poverty has created vulnerability to infection for a large segment of the population; on the other, it has been the cause of rapid progression of the disease due to malnutrition and inadequate access social and health care services.