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Two Ugandan doctors refused to touch Philly Lutaaya.
Fear of HIV had infected even those sworn to heal.
So Philly took his wasting body to Makerere Medical School and told the future doctors of Uganda:
"You can not heal what you fear to touch. If you refuse to lay hands on the suffering, what hope is there for the village?"
Philly's legs, which had carried him through the recording of "Alone" and across Uganda on his crusade, were failing again.
The sores on his feet made each step a battle.
Yet when he arrived for treatment, two doctors refused to touch him.
The very fear he had dedicated his remaining days to fighting had infected the healers themselves.
Philly left without anger, but with renewed purpose.
If medical professionals could not overcome their terror, how could ordinary Ugandans?
Days later, he stood before the students of Makerere Medical School, the only institution of its kind in Uganda at the time.
He spoke not as a patient seeking sympathy but as a teacher demanding accountability.
"You cannot heal what you fear to touch," he told them, voice firm despite his weakening body. "If you, who have studied medicine, who understand how this virus transmits, still refuse to lay hands on the suffering, what hope is there for the market woman, the village elder, the frightened mother?"
Then Philly shifted to something broader: the systemic neglect that let the epidemic spiral.
He spoke of the meagre amount the Ugandan government spent on each citizen's healthcare, a sum so small it could barely treat a common cold, let alone a pandemic.
The students listened in sombre silence as he laid bare the economic realities that would shape their careers.
Dr. Eli Katabira, head of the medical school, took the podium after Philly finished.
"Even condoms," he admitted, "we can not stock them consistently. Our economy does not allow it."
The disease spiralled not because Ugandans were immoral but because they were uninformed, unprepared, and unsupported by a system still finding its feet after years of collapse.
Philly sat quietly, two warriors in the same battle, one armed with medicine, the other with truth.
Born in Africa.
Philly Lutaaya's Journey.
Part 17.
1989.
Philly turned his own rejection into a lesson for an entire generation of doctors.
What does it take to confront a fear so deep that even professionals couldn't overcome it?
#ughistory #PhillyLutaaya #AIDS @MulagoReferral @MinofHealthUG @MakCHS_SOM @Makerere @MakerereNews
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