CONTROVERSIAL AIDS CONFERENCE OPENS IN UGANDA
NKOZI, Uganda, August 29 2000, Sapa-AFP
A controversial African AIDS conference opened in Uganda Tuesday, attended by a group of scientists who question the orthodox view that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus.
About 60 scientists from Africa, Britain and the United States were expected to debate and discuss what they called a "holistic approach in fighting AIDS."
The four-day conference, which seeks to find an alternative view on the origins of the pandemic, is being held at the Roman Catholic Nkozi Martyrs University, 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of the capital, Kampala.
During the first session, delegates concentrated more on the social factors in Africa as a main trigger of AIDS.
"I agree AIDS is a problem, but I am not sure that HIV is its cause," said Nduhukhire-Owa-Mataze, a political economist at Nkozi University.
"We should not close doors yet. More research is still needed," said Professor Sam Mhlongo, a member of South African President Thabo Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel.
Mbeki stirred great controversy earlier this year by courting the opinion of dissident scientists who say that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.
The dissidents say the real causes of lack of resistance against AIDS are related to under-development, poverty, poor hygiene and local diseases.
Mbeki has since sought to downplay the controversy by welcoming traditional views after an unprecedented rebuke from the world's scientific community. Scientists issued a declaration with 5,000 signatures to say that sound science, rather than "myth" would resolve the crisis.
Before the conference opened here, Professor Mhlongo said Africa had always been hard-hit by any health epidemic.
"What is happening today is nothing new," he said, adding: "Let us allow other approaches, and people should be allowed to ask questions, if we are to find an African approach to AIDS."
The university's vice chancellor, Peter Kanyandago, said: "Today, it is taken for granted that for Africa to find a solution to AIDS, it has to rely on loans and drugs from the West."
He added: "Negative imaging and stereotyping of Africans has led to justification that Africa is the origin of the disease."
While it was widely believed that HIV causes AIDS, a number of dissidents at the conference argued that the case had not been proved. They draw on theories positing that HIV is only a passenger virus and that other factors are behind the pandemic.
Some of the speakers attacked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for its policies in the developing world, which they said had helped create the conditions that trigger AIDS.
The conference was due to start on Monday but was postponed for a day amid ongoing disagreement with the Ugandan government.
Uganda fearing the conference would erode its achievements in the struggle against the disease, launched a publicity blitz against the gathering.
A government statement said Uganda still believed that AIDS was caused by the HIV.
"Any wavering from this position will encourage those who are still in denial state, to abdicate their responsibilities in preventing infection," the statement added.
More than 1.5 million people are believed to carry the HIV virus in Uganda, and the disease has killed about 500,000 people there.
The Uganda AIDS Control programme, which creates awareness to prevent the spread of AIDS, has been hailed as an international success after HIV infection rates halved in the country between 1992 and 1996.
The United Nations says that 24.5 million people are infected with AIDS in Africa: more than 70 percent of the world total.