ARE 26 MILLION AFRICANS DYING OF

AIDS?
"The Biggest Lie of the Century" Under Fire
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/balie.htm
By Baffour n!omah
New African "e#. $%%&
1st December is "World AIDS Day". In the run-up to it, the AIDS stablishment has been issuin! some
dubious fi!ures about a "pandemic" of AIDS in Africa. "# documentaries to be broadcast on, or before, 1
December ha$e been lined up in %ritain and elsewhere to reinforce the stablishment line. %ut how
accurate are these fi!ures& 'ne African doctor calls it "the bi!!est lie of the century". (oan Shenton, the
award-winnin! %ritish "# producer and )ournalist says "it*s all bad science". +ortunately, the e$idence on
the !round in Africa so far doesn*t support the "pandemic" fi!ures. %affour An,omah reports.
The balan#e sheet of "fri#an '"(" for the year $%%& loo!s li!e this: ugust: "new #lass" of )'*+ the virus said to #ause
'"(+ was "dis#overed" in a Cameroonian woman by Fren#h resear#hers in ,aris. The new virus is said to be so different to all
other strains of )'*-$.
.$ /#tober: t the #losing of the (e#ond To!yo 'nternational Conferen#e on fri#an "evelopment 0T'C" ''1+ U2'"(+ the U2
outfit headed by the Belgian ,eter ,iot+ managed to snea! the following paragraph into the "To!yo genda for #tion" - the
newest blueprint for fri#an development in the ne3t #entury adopted at the #onferen#e:
")'*/'"(+" the paragraph said+ "has e3a#ted a tremendous toll in human suffering+ death and lost produ#tivity. Currently+ of the
4$ million adults and #hildren living with )'*/'"( worldwide+ .$ million of them live in fri#a. 5ighty per #ent of all women
with )'*/'"( are in fri#a. s a result+ life e3pe#tan#y is de#lining+ infant and #hild mortality are on the rise+ and individuals6
produ#tivity and e#onomi# development are threatened. The insidous effe#ts of )'*/'"( affe#t the entire spe#trum of e#onomi#
and so#ial a#tivities."
/nly a passing referen#e was made to malaria+ the s#ientifi#ally proven single biggest !iller on the fri#an #ontinent. 7hy+ after
the failures of the past de#ade in '"( resear#h and fore#ast+ U2'"( still wants the world to #on#entrate billions of dollars on
)'*/'"( - a "disease" that is yet to be s#ientifi#ally proven - at the e3pense of malaria+ the already proven "biggest !iller" of
fri#ans+ should worry us all.
.& /#tober: Came the biggest news of all. The ,opulation "ivision of the United 2ations "epartment of 5#onomi# and (o#ial
ffairs announ#ed that "'"( has a#hieved pandemi# proportions in several of 48 sub-(aharan #ountries where at least one in
four people is infe#ted with )'*".
The report+ part of the U26s world population survey for $%%&+ said '"( is dramati#ally #utting the life e3pe#tan#y in many
fri#an #ountries and will leave their populations far below what was e3pe#ted in the ne3t $9 to $: years.
"'n Botswana+ the hardest hit #ountry in sub-(ahara fri#a+ life e3pe#tan#y whi#h stood at ;$ years only five years ago+ has
dropped to 8< and is e3pe#ted to drop further to 8$ between .999 and .99:"+ said the 2ew =or! Times+ >uoting the U2
population survey. "'n ?imbabwe+ where one in five adults is )'*-positive+ the mortality rate is signifi#antly redu#ing the
#ountry6s population growth+ from 4.4@ a year between $%&9 and $%&: to $.8@ now+ and a proAe#tion of less than $@ beginning in
.999. "7ere it not for the virus+ ?imbabwe6s population would probably now be growing at ..8@"+ the U2 report added for good
measure.
)owever+ it made no mention of the a#tivities of the thousands of 7estern #ondom and family planning evangelists who
des#ended on fri#a in the last $9 years under the sponsorship of the very same U2 agen#ies spewing out those bogus figures. 2o
one needs a ,h" to !now that the #han#es of ma!ing babies are #onsiderably redu#ed with in#reased #ondom use. Thus+ the more
?imbabweans use #ondoms or plan their families+ the more their #ountry6s population growth rate will de#line. 't has nothing to do
with any virus. The same #an be said of population growth rates elsewhere in fri#a.
s far as the figures go+ the most disturbing thing is that in their haste to do fri#a6s image the most harm+ the U2 agen#ies do not
apparently #ross-#he#! with one another+ or even #o-ordinate their figures before rushing to announ#e.
'n To!yo+ while U2'"( bambooBled the :$ fri#an #ountries present at the T'C" '' #onferen#e with the "fa#t" that: "/f the
4$ million adults and #hildren living with )'*/'"( worldwide+ .$ million of them live in fri#a"+ the U2 population survey
barely two wee!s later was telling the world: "/f the 49 million persons in the world #urrently infe#ted with )'*+ .; million or
&;@ reside in 48 Cfri#anD #ountries. 'n addition+ %$@ of all '"( deaths in the world have o##urred in these 48 #ountries."
(o who do we believeE U2'"( or the U2 ,opulation "ivisionE
t the To!yo Conferen#e+ U2'"( distributed what it #alled "5pidemiologi#al fa#t sheet on )'*/'"( and se3ually transmitted
diseases" on every fri#an #ountry. The table 0right1 shows a small sele#tion of the "fa#ts" as distributed by U2'"( at the
#onferen#e:
'f U2'"( is to be believed+ the mortality rate from )'*/'"( in sub-(ahara fri#a is well over %9@. 'f this a#tually refle#ts the
reality on the ground+ then fri#an #emeteries should be filling up by now - as fri#ans do not #remate their dead+ they bury them.
But you don6t see #emeteries filling up in fri#a. "(o where are the gravesE"+ as the eminent Fhanaian do#tor Feli3 Gonotey-
hulu so elo>uently put it $9 years ago when the same "pandemi#" announ#ements were being made about fri#an '"(.
'n fa#t U2'"( itself at some point must have found its own figures so hilariously #omi#al that it felt obliged to in#lude a
"health-warning" in the "fa#tsheets" distributed in To!yo.
"'n $%%< and during the first >uarter of $%%&+" the health-warning began+ "U2'"( and 7)/ wor!ed #losely with national
governments and resear#h institutions to re#al#ulate #urrent estimates on people living with )'*/'"(. These #al#ulations are
based on the previously published estimates for $%%8 and re#ent trends in )'*/'"( surveillan#e in various populations.
"5pimodel .+ a mi#ro#omputer programme originally developed by the 7)/ Flobal ,rogramme on '"(+ was used to #al#ulate
the new estimates on prevalen#e and in#iden#e of '"( and '"( deaths+ as well as the number of #hildren infe#ted through
mother-to-#hild transmission of )'*+ ta!ing into a##ount age-spe#ifi# fertility rates. n additional spreadsheet model was used to
#al#ulate the number of #hildren whose mothers had died of '"(.
"The #urrent estimates do not #laim to be an e3a#t #ount of infe#tions. Hather+ they use a methodology that has thus far proved
a##urate in produ#ing estimates whi#h give a good indi#ation of the magnitude of the epidemi# in individual #ountries..."
2oti#e the words+ "#al#ulations"+ "mi#ro#omputer programme"+ "spreadsheet model"+ and the e3traordinary admission that "the
#urrent estimates do no #laim to be an e3a#t #ount".
'n other words+ fri#ans #an safely go to sleep with the !nowledge that the alleged .; million of their #ountrymen+ women and
#hildren living with )'*/'"( are mere "#al#ulations" made by a "mi#ro#omputer programme" using a "spreadsheet model"
prepared by the dis#redited and now defun#t 7)/ Flobal ,rogramme on '"(. The figures+ therefore+ do not refle#t the true
situation on the ground.
'n the past+ these e3tremely alarming figures are !nown to have been used to #aAole governments and institutions into giving more
money to the U2 agen#ies and others dealing with '"(.
To fri#ans+ the most troubling aspe#t is that people around the world do ta!e these figures at fa#e value+ and thus believe that
almost every fri#an is riddled with the )'* virus from head to toe and only waiting to die of '"( in $9 years time or so+ if not
dying now.
Thus+ for fri#a6s own self-belief and #onfiden#e+ it is time fri#an governments shed their apathy+ spo!e out and #hallenged these
figures as the )aitians did in the early $%&9s when they were falsely blamed for the origins of '"(. fter all+ it is the fri#an
governments who live with the .; million of their #itiBens said to be on death row. (o they must !now the e3tent of the
"pandemi#"+ if ever there is one.
t the T'C" '' #onferen#e in To!yo+ the U2", assistant administrator for fri#a+ Is Thelma wori 0originally from Uganda+
this writer was told1 even had the temerity to atta#! fri#an governments at a press #onferen#e for "denying" the e3tent of the
'"( "pandemi#" in their #ountries.
(he+ however+ neatly ignored the fa#t that $4 years ago+ the U2 agen#ies were saying mu#h the same about Uganda being "the
hardest hit" in fri#a and how Uganda6s "heavily infe#ted" population would be wiped out in a matter of years. That dire
predi#tion never #ame to pass. 2ow in '"( #ir#les+ the tal! is about the "Ugandan mira#le". (o what happened to Uganda6s
"heavily infe#ted" populationE They got some '"( #ure perhapsE
(in#e those apo#alypti# days+ the U2 agen#ies 0the 7)/ then in the forefront1+ have been shifting the goalposts - they have
moved the "hardest hit #ountry tag" from Uganda to TanBania to ?ambia to Ialawi to (outh fri#a+ a bit of ?imbabwe
and...now...Botswana.
nd Is wori+ an fri#an woman powerful enough to #hallenge these figures at the highest level with the view of ma!ing the
'"( 5stablishement return to the days of "good s#ien#e"+ is rather blaming her own people for not a##epting the bogus figures
#hurned out by mi#ro#omputers. (he must surely !now that the )'* hypothesis itself and the )'* tests based on it+ have been
proven to be hugely unreliable.
"'t6s a lie+ the figures are all lies+ the biggest lie of the #entury+" said an fri#an do#tor attending the T'C" '' #onferen#e in
To!yo. )e did not want to be named out of fear that his #areer prospe#ts #ould be harmed by the '"( 5stablishment.
To impartial onloo!ers+ the attempt by the 5stablishment to destroy the reputations and #areers of dissenters #hallenging the
)'*J'"(J"eath hypothesis+ is a very troubling one. Too troubling that it is one of the main themes of a boo! published earlier
this year by the award-winning British T* produ#er and Aournalist+ Koan (henton. Titled ,ositively False - 53posing the myths
around )'* and '"(+ the boo! tells how Koan (henton herself survived the 5stablishment onslaught on her reputation and
#areer+ and how the dirty tri#!s are still being used to frustrate her independent T* produ#tion #ompany+ Ieditel ,rodu#tions. 'n
the past year alone+ Koan has had several #ontra#ts for T* spea!ing engagements and do#umentaries #an#elled or "demoted to si3-
minute news items" by even some of the liberal-minded T* e3e#utives in Britain.
'n the boo!+ Koan tells how she entered the '"( debate with a #ertain Aournalisti# #ampaigning inno#en#e and Beal. "Fradually+ '
began to realise that the wall of opposition was unbrea#hable. 7e were up against massive #ollusion between a dogmati# s#ientifi#
establishment and sheepish governments being bullied into handing over thousands of millions of dollars to further resear#h into a
bogus and unproven hypothesis."
'n the first $9 years+ Koan (henton6s #areer in medi#al Aournalism saw the ma!ing of $99 T* do#umentaries whi#h won her
#ompany seven international awards. (even of those do#umentaries were on )'*/'"( alone+ two of whi#h won the Hoyal
Television (o#iety ward and the British Iedi#al sso#iation ward.
The story is best told by Koan herself:
"The story of )'*+" she reveals in her boo!+ "and the pani# over '"( has led to over $99+999 published papers on )'* and
'"(. (ome L89 billion of the U( ta3payers money and M. billion in the UG has been spent on '"( sin#e $%&8... =et+ in all this
time+ no #ure for '"( has been found...
"7hyE Be#ause the '"( edifi#e is built upon the false hypothesis that the retrovirus )'* is the #ause of '"( and that '"( is
an infe#tious disease. 'n fa#t+ the '"( syndrome has not behaved li!e an infe#tious disease would. 't has remained restri#ted to
#ertain high ris! groupsN groups that are already prone to severe immune suppression."
(he #ontinues: "7hat ' have learned over these years is that the s#ientifi# #ommunity is no longer free. Today s#ien#e #an be
bought+ and the individual dissenting voi#e is able to be silen#ed and dismissed be#ause of the enormous sums of money involved
in prote#ting a prevailing hypothesis+ however flawed it may be.
",oliti#s+ power and money dominate the s#ientifi# resear#h field to su#h an e3tent that it is now no longer possible to put a
hypothesis that has be#ome dogma to the test.
"(#ientifi# trials sponspored by pharma#euti#al #ompanies often involve many different university fa#ulties at one time and
#onse>uently tie up most of the e3pert voi#es. The dogma is written up in tablets of stone in medi#al te3tboo!s and young s#ien#e
students swallow it without >uestion. Those that are already in well paid Aobs find it easier not to ro#! the boat. 7hat would be the
pointE They would simply lose their Aobs."
Koan (henton laments the fa#t that the '"( debate has been driven by money+ money+ money. "The sale of )'* test !its ChaveD
be#ome a sour#e of immense revenue+" she writes. "5a#h time a drop of blood CisD tested+ it CmeansD 84 pen#e for the #ompany
produ#ing the !it. Iany s#ientists resear#hing into the '"( virus themselves ChaveD #ompanies selling test !its and CownD
millions of dollars in #ompany shares. '"( for these individuals CisD a very profitable business."
(he #ontinues: "The story of '"( is also spe#ial be#ause it is the first time in the history of medi#ine that so mu#h money has
been thrown into one parti#ular disease.
"7ith L89bn spent in $8 years in the U( alone+ it is the biggest industry ne3t to the defen#e department. The money was fuelled by
the plague terror ta#ti#s used by well-established organisations li!e the U( Centers for "iesease Control and its offshoot+ the
5pidemi# 'ntelligen#e (ervi#e Calso !nown as the medi#al C'D whose members are strategi#ally pla#ed in positions of power and
influen#e in the media.
"There is yet another #omple3 reason for the support of an infe#tious agent as the #ause of '"(. 'n the 7est+ those affe#ted by
the syndrome are %9@ male+ of whom :9@ are homose3ual habitual drug users - both intravenous and re#reational.
""uring the $%&9s+ the gay #ommunity had a powerful lobbying voi#e with governments that were an3ious to be seen to be
6politi#ally #orre#t6. n infe#tious #ause of '"( was more e3pedient for the gay #ommunity."
Koan re#alls that money was at the root of the legal battle in the mid-$%&9s between the Fren#h and meri#an "#o-dis#overers" of
the )'* virus itself. They all wanted a monopoly over the test !it patent revenue.
/n the very same day+ in the spring of $%&8+ when Iargaret )e#!ler+ the U( )ealth (e#retary+ with Hobert Fallo by her side+
announ#ed at a press #onferen#e in 7ashington "C that "the probable #ause of '"( has been found"+ Fallo filed a U( patent for
the )'* blood test !it he had developed. )is #laim that he was the sole dis#overer of the virus was soon #hallenged by the Fren#h
do#tor+ Lu# Iontagnier who happened to be the first to have "dis#overed" the virus.
"(o+ at he behest of ,resident Honald Hegan and Cthe thenD Fren#h ,rime Iinister Ka#>ues Chira#+" Koan (henton writes+ "Fallo
and Iontagnier met in a Fran!furt hotel room to wor! out a settlement.
"The end result was that the Fren#h and meri#ans settled the lawsuit. 'n Iar#h $%&<+ they agreed to share the #redit for
dis#overing the virus and split the royalties from the blood test !its. By $%%8+ those royalties had amounted to L4: million. "Fallo
holds $4 U( patents and has applied for .% others. )is inventions have brought his previous employers+ the 2ational 'nstitutes of
)ealth+ half of its in#ome from royalties. The University of Iaryland will hold the patents on new inventions emerging from
Fallo6s 'nstitute of )uman *irology+ but will split the profits :9-:9 with the inventors. Freat hopes are pinned on Fallo."
)ere again+ Koan (henton shows that money was at the root of the alarming '"( figures put out by the U2 system+ espe#ially the
7)/. 'n the past+ she writes+ 7)/ figures were "bumped up by hundreds of thousands of presumptive diagnoses in Third 7orld
#ountries where '"( is diagnosed without an )'* test.
"'n the early $%%9s+ the 7)/6s Flobal ,rogramme on '"( Clater to be ta!en over by U2'"(D was employing between .+999-
4+999 people. They #ontinually fed highly inflated figures to the press+ and offi#ials at publi# meetings began to >uote their
estimated #ases for '"( in order to drum up funding+ >uietly dropping the a#tual reported figures. "7e #hallenged these figures
at a meeting at the London (#hool of )ygiene and Tropi#al Iedi#ine in $%%4+ and there was a red-fa#ed a#!nowledgement that
the figures they were using as fa#t+ were no more than guess wor!.
"'n pril $%%:+ the 7)/ Flobal ,rogramme on '"( dismissed <:9 of its wor!ers be#ause none of the 6pandemi#6 predi#tions
had #ome true. Clearly+ none of the established prin#iples about )'* and '"( had stood up to the test. '"( had not spread into
the heterose3ual #ommunity in the 7est and '"( had not ravaged Third 7orld #ountries." 'n fa#t+ in Britain and elsewhere in
the 7est+ re#ent reports say some '"( #lini#s are being #losed down be#ause "'"( patients" are getting better and going home
instead of dying as predi#ted. nd this is "the disease" that has no #ure yet.
'n her boo!+ Koan (henton tells how she interviewed "the dis#overer" of the )'* virus+ Lu# Iontagnier and how the great man
ba#!pedalled on some of his earlier beliefs about )'*.
Koan re#ounts: "Until our meeting with Iontagnier that day in early Iar#h $%%9+ the world had been led to believe that if you
#aught )'* it would !ill you willy nilly. =et we were about to hear shattering news that the very s#ientist who dis#overed )'*
was now ba#!pedalling on the virus6 ability to be the sole #ause of '"(. CIontagnier admittedD: 6t first+ yes+ we thought we had
the best #andidate for this virus to be the #ause of '"(. But after a while - even from the beginning a#tually - we thought maybe
for the a#tivation of that virus in #ells+ we had to+ we need some #o-fa#tors. (o ' would agree that )'* by itself+ or some strains of
)'* are not suffi#ient to indu#e '"(.6
,eter "uesberg+ one of the heavyweight '"( dissenters and one of the best !nown retrovirologists in the world - on#e the blue-
eyed boy of the meri#an medi#al establishment with resear#h funding thrown at him from every #orner - #ame to Koan (henton6s
res#ue:
"' believe+" "uesberg told Koan+ "that '"( is not+ or #annot even be an infe#tious disease. n infe#tious disease+ believe it or not+
has a #riteria to itN how it happens+ when it happens. For e3ample+ if you get infe#ted by a bug or by a virus+ within wee!s or
months after #onta#t or after that infe#tion+ you will have symptoms of a disease.
"'n )'* and '"(+ however+ we are told you get si#! $9 years later+ $9 years after infe#tionO That is not how viruses or ba#teria
wor!. They wor! faster or never. They are a very simple me#hanism li!e a little #lo#! that #an do only one thing - go around the
dial on#e+ and that ta!es .8 to 8& hours with a virus.
"There is no way that a virus #ould possibly slow down or wait a wee! or wait $9 years. That is totally absurd.
"'"(+ as it is thought of+ is primarily a result of+ ' suspe#t into3i#ation - #>uired 'mmune "efi#ien#y - as the word a#tually
says. 'n '"(+ you a#>uire it by #onsuming drugs and through malnutrition that is often typi#ally lin!ed to it. /n#e that has
happened+ on#e you are immune defi#ient+ then you are open to many infe#tions that are se#ondary or opportunisti# as we say.
That is not therefore an infe#tious disease. 't is the result of that."
2o wonder "uesberg has had his resear#h funding #an#elled and has be#ome the most vilified virologist in the whole wide world.
Koan (henton ne3t as!ed him: 'f the infe#tious hypothesis is proved wrong at the end+ what thenE
"The impli#ations would be very serious"+ "uesberg replied. "*ery+ very serious in fa#t. Iillions of lives that #ould have been
saved won6t be saved if we wor! on an ungrounded or poorly grounded hypothesis..."
't was time for Koan (henton to ta!e a #loser loo! at "fri#an '"(". t the end of $%%.+ she travelled with her team to fri#a to
shoot a do#umentary on '"(+ after a resear#h trip a few months earlier. (he remembered that as early as $%&&+ "r )arvey Bialy+
another of the meri#an heavyweight dissenters had said:
"There is no s#ientifi# literature about '"( in fri#a. 't is $99@ ad hominem+ ane#todal trash... ' had thought for a long time that
what was being #lassified as '"( in fri#a+ whi#h was a #ompletely different syndrome of diseases than what was being #alled
'"( in the 7est+ was in fa#t nothing more than a new name for a #olle#tion of old diseases. "iseases that are #alled '"( are
#lassi#al fri#an diseases in populations that have for a very long time been subAe#t to these infe#tions. 7hen that is readAusted in
terms of terribly+ terribly sero-epidemiology+ in regard to the so-#alled '"( virus+ the pi#ture be#omes a very grim one+ at least a
statisti#ally grim one. The whole notion of fri#an '"( is si#! to begin with. 7hy is there su#h a thing as fri#an '"(E "o we
have meri#an '"(+ sian '"(+ Fren#h '"(E"
Koan and her team of resear#hers travelled to fri#a to find out for themselves. (he #ites two studies in Fhana and Cote d6'voire in
whi#h "'"( without )'*" was found in ..< patients in Fhana and $4: patients in Cote d6'voire. ll of them were suffering form
the "#lassi#al symptoms of "fri#an '"(": weight loss+ diarrhoea+ #hroni# fever+ tuber#ulosis and neurologi#al diseases. =et ..<
of them in Fhana and $4: in Cote d6'voire were )'*-negative.
Koan as!ed "r Gevin de Co#! who was then wor!ing for the meri#an Centres for "isease Control 0C"C1 and had a laboratory in
the 'vorian #apital+ bidAan+ to e3plain why .+899 do#umented "#ases of '"(" in his 0de Co#!6s own1 study and others had
turned out to be )'* negative.
"r de Co#! replied: "'f we6re tal!ing about '"( we should perhaps s#rap the word and tal! about )'* disease. ll rightE 't6s
very #lear what is )'* disease. 2ow it6s not surprising that the #onstellation of symptoms+ signs+ and indeed opportunisti#
infe#tions+ o##asionally - o##asionally - o##ur in people without )'* infe#tion."
'f he thought he #ould get away with that lame answer+ he was mista!en. Koan ne3t as!ed him: "Those .+899 #ases were #alled
'"(+ for all intents and purposes+ in all the literature. nd yet you6re saying they shouldn6t have been #alled '"(. But they were
identi#al to '"(. (o are you saying..."
"r de Co#!: "But they were )'* negative."
Koan: "(o you are saying there have been .+899 misdiagnosesE" "r de Co#!: "re you tal!ing about - we6re tal!ing about the
>uality of surveillan#e data."
Koan: "The C.+899D do#umented #ases of full-blown '"( whi#h+ when tested+ were )'* negative."
"r de Co#!: "7ell+ then they6re not '"( #ases. They6re not '"( in the way we tal! about )'* disease."
Koan: "But they were #alled '"( in the do#uments. They were #alled #lini#al #ase definition Bangui '"(. "o you seeE"
"r de Co#!: "/f #ourse ' see. ny #ase definition+ parti#ularly one whi#h is #lini#ally based is not going to be perfe#t."
This reminded Koan (henton of what "r Iartin /!ot-2wang+ one of Uganda6s leading TB spe#ialists had told her in Gampala:
" patient who has TB and is )'* positive would appear e3a#tly the same as a patient who has TB and is )'* negative.
Clini#ally+ both patients #ould present with long fever+ both patients will present loss of weight+ both patients will present with a
prolonged #ough+ and in both #ases the #ough #ould be e>ually produ#tive. Therefore+ #lini#ally+ ' #annot differentiate between the
two. 5ven when ' loo! at the blood analyses+ ' may find some similarities between the two groups."
Koan (henton already !new+ from a study her own Ieditel ,rodu#tions had done ba#! in London between Kune and /#tober $%%;+
that false positive results and in#onsisten#ies between one test !it and another and between different laboratories+ were rampant in
the trade. For e3ample in the study+ one sample given by a volunteer+ ,eter 2i#holls+ went from )'*-positive three times to )'*
negative twi#e - all in the spa#e of one month.
Koan (henton was left to as!: "re TB and Ialaria being #alled '"( in fri#aE". The Ugandan health minister+ "r Kames
Ia!umbi proferred an answer: "7e have more than <99 non-governmental organisations operating in the '"( field in Uganda+"
the minister said. "This raises #on#ern+ be#ause a few of them are doing a very good Aob. But a good number of them+ my ministry
is not aware of what they are a#tualling doing+ and there is no way of evaluating them. Unfortunately+ a good number of them do
rush in+ #olle#t data and go away with it+ and the ne3t we hear about it is when it is being printed in Aournals. nd we have not had
any input. (ome of the wor! has been done in very limited areas+ not refle#ting the rest of the #ountry."
's the world surprised+ then+ to hear that a mi#ro#omputer says there are .; million fri#ans living with )'*/'"(E
Badru (semanda+ a Ugandan+ summed it all up: ",eople are trying to ma!e a living out of '"(. They thin! that if they publi#ise
it and they e3aggerate it+ they might win sympathy from the international #ommunity and will get aid. 7e need assistan#e but not
through bluffing people and saying that people are dying at a rate whi#h is not true." P