The HIV/AIDS treatment centre in Kampala is almost empty, days after Uganda enacted one of the most draconian anti-gay laws on Earth.
The usual daily influx of around 50 patients has all but dried up, say staff. Antiretroviral drugs pile up unused.
Until this year, the Kampala clinic had been a beacon of success for the fight against HIV in Uganda, where 1.4 million people live with the virus and 17,000 die a year as a result of its ravages, according to the state-run Uganda AIDS Commission. She said fear had increasingly been deterring people from coming in for treatment ever since the anti-gay bill was introduced in parliament in March.A rare patient visiting the Kampala clinic said he despaired at the new legislation.
Such fears of reduced American funding aren't far-fetched; after Museveni signed the bill into law, US President Joe Biden directed his National Security Council to evaluate the implications for US engagement with Uganda, including PEPFAR. PEPFAR estimates its support for the scale-up of antiretroviral treatments in Uganda helped avert nearly 600,000 HIV-related deaths between 2004 and 2022.
The Ugandan bill toughened up an existing British colonial-era law, under which gay sex was already illegal. Proponents say the new legislation is needed to counter what they allege are efforts by LGBTQ Ugandans to recruit children into homosexuality.
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