Ugandan Clinics Selling Fake HIV Certificates To Job Seekers

Private clinics in Uganda’s capital of Kampala are selling off bogus HIV negative test results in order to help people secure jobs, reported the BBC on Thursday, calling into question recent government campaigns promoting their successful fight against the disease.

During an undercover investigation held at 15 clinics, 12 were willing to give out fake negative results with a bribe of $20.

Private clinics in Uganda’s capital of Kampala are selling off bogus HIV negative test results in order to help people secure jobs, reported the BBC on Thursday, calling into question recent government campaigns promoting their successful fight against the disease.

During an undercover investigation held at 15 clinics, 12 were willing to give out fake negative results with a bribe of $20.

Inside the clinics, there were a handful of staff, a doctor maybe but usually a nurse and a laboratory technician, reported the BBC, who would hand out the certificates issued with an official stamp and the health worker’s signature.

One woman, who declined to reveal her identity, said she knew she was breaking the law when she got a fake test result, but she had no choice.

[quote]”I had to get the fake negative results because if I gave the company my positive results I was not going to get employed,” she told the BBC. “I’m a single mother. I’m struggling. I need this money. I need this job for my child.”[/quote]

For years, Uganda has been seen as a global leader in the fight against the disease. Twenty years ago, around one in five Ugandans had the virus, but by 2005, official figures showed that the rate was brought down to 6.3 percent.

The massive social stigma attached to the disease however mean that many are too scared or are unwilling to take tests.

Employers are also not willing to hire HIV positive workers because they think the disease will make them less efficient at work.

Dr Peter Mugenyi, the director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kampala, told The Observer that the widespread discrimination was causing Ugandans from getting the health care they needed.

“We need to fight discrimination; those who are providing jobs should not discriminate whether one is positive or negative and people should not resort to desperate means when they are seeking something,” he said, adding that the practice of garnering fake HIV results has been around since the 1980s.

Uganda’s Minister of Health Dr Ruhakana Rugunda also said that he was not shocked by the prevalence of fake results. He too attributed the habit to severe stigma against people with HIV.

“It does not shock me [that people are buying bogus negative results]. Nevertheless, it’s a challenge for government and the country to pull up its socks and squarely face this problem,” he said.

[quote]Unfortunately, “that’s [the discrimination] pushing people to tell lies and to fake certificates,” he added.[/quote]

US ambassador to Kampala, Scott DeLisi, told the BBC he could not guarantee that more than $2 billion in U.S. aid had not gone to clinics giving out fake HIV-negative certificates.

 

The U.S. funds the majority of Uganda’s HIV programmes, mainly through non-governmental organisations.