bridgetown, barbados (AP)
AN ANGLICAN CLERIC who became the first priest in Africa to acknowledge that he had the virus that causes AIDS has started a tour of Caribbean nations as part of a campaign to increase awareness of the disease and tolerance for those who have it.
The Rev. Canon Gideon Byamugisha of Uganda said yesterday that he hopes to encourage people to get tested for HIV and to seek treatment if they carry the virus. "If I kept this to myself, then a lot of other people would not be helped," Byamugisha said.
Byamugisha said he was devastated by his diagnosis but now hopes to convince people that the virus is not an automatic death sentence. "The good news is that it is preventable if you don't have it and it is manageable if you do," he said.
AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognised in 1981 and more than 40 million are living with the virus, according to the United Nations (U.N.). For years, sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean have been the two regions with the highest rates of HIV infection, the U.N. said.
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