Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe has suggested that one of the most effective ways of dealing with the HIV and Aids pandemic is to treat it as a public health emergency and enforce compulsory testing for everyone.
In an interview with CCTV in New York on Tuesday, the 86 year old octogenarian said similar measures to those instituted in past outbreaks, such as smallpox, were needed for effective intervention.
Mugabe said this would, however, only be possible if conducted at a regional and international level with all countries carrying out compulsory testing in tandem. Giving his personal opinion when asked how best to deal with the pandemic, he said:
“To tell you the truth, I am of the view that HIV and Aids, being so devastating an epidemic, governments of the region — perhaps universally — should agree that it’s not a violation of rights to subject people to medical examinations . . .
“This is as long as the results remain between the doctor and the person being tested and are not made public. This will determine who is carrying it and who is not. But then you have this human rights thing that says you cannot force someone to be tested and in that regard it (compulsory testing) is not good.
“I don’t think that it’s a violation of human rights. If there is any justification for it (testing), it is because it is a measure to justify stopping the spread of an epidemic.”
Mugabe said the law did not allow such testing at present and said it was his opinion that the individual legislatures and governments should look into this.
“At the moment that’s the main inhibition on the part of Government, we don’t have the courage to force testing and the law does not allow it. My feeling is that the law should be amended . . . but this must be done regionally and internationally.
“Once upon a time when I was young, we had the entirety of the population vaccinated against smallpox. If it was compulsory for the smallpox, for precautions, if it was right then why is it not right now?” he asked.
“Essentially it is the same; the lives, the health of people, prevention of death — death of communities in a calamitous way.”
He said while the social factors surrounding smallpox and HIV and Aids were very different, at the end of the day, the effects of the current pandemic were more devastating than past ones.
“(Fear of) discrimination should not count as being of greater weight than the need to prevent the spread of the disease across the community, across the nation,” he said.
