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UGANDA: No condoms in new attack on AIDS

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 2 August (PLUSNEWS) - Uganda will not promote condom use in the new phase of its fight against HIV/AIDS, the Minister of Information, Dr James Nsaba Buturo, has announced.

Debate was sparked when President Yoweri Museveni at an AIDS conference in Bangkok favoured abstinence over condoms in tackling the pandemic.

Despite a recent call by the UN that condoms should remain central to tackling HIV/AIDS, the minister defended Museveni's position and took a swipe at multinational companies cashing in on the promotion of condom use.

"The government is convinced that various interventions have high demonstrable capacity for protecting people against HIV/AIDS and must be encouraged, hence the emphasis on abstinence," Buturo was quoted by a local newspaper, The Monitor, as saying.

[ENDS]

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