Malawi gays have right to health care –AG

Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale has said homosexuals will not be discriminated against when accessing healthcare despite the existing anti-gay law.

Kaphale said this in defending government’s move to request $388 888 (about K221 million) from Global Fund for HIV and Aids interventions targeting 40 000 men who have sex with fellow men. Lesbians – women who have sex with fellow women – have been excluded in the package.

The AG said that all people, gay or otherwise, should get full access to medical treatment just like government provides health care services for other citizens that have violated the law.

Malawi government is asking for the money targetting about 40 000 homosexual men with testing, counselling, treatment, condoms and prevention of risky behaviour programmes.

Kaphale said all people whether they are sexual orientation as gays or otherwise are at complete liberty to get full treatment, as they also pay tax just like any other Malawian.

Minister of Health Peter Kumpalume urged gay people to be honest with healthcare workers, particularly when discussing treatment for HIV.

Kumpalume assured that health workers will live up to their ethics of “keeping confidentiality of their patients.”

President Peter Mutharika on Thursday received a grant of $332 million from international aid organisation The Global Fund in Lilongwe, Malawi’s administrative capital to fight AIDS and other diseases, bringing much-needed support to a nation wrestling with public health problems.

Malawi has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, straining the impoverished country’s healthcare system and economy.

The grant would enable Malawi to provide HIV treatment for 745,000 patients by the end of 2017, the Global Fund said in a statement.

The money came from donors including the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

While Malawi has made significant gains in combatting AIDS, it still registers hundreds of new HIV infections every week.

Malawi has trimmed the national HIV prevalence rate from over 12 per cent in 2004 to 10 per cent in 2014.

Western countries and local civil society organisations (CSOs) have been campaigning that Malawi should legalise homosexuality.