By The state minister for Primary Health Care, Ms Margaret Muhanga, has advised men to stop going for Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) paternity testing, saying it is not beneficial to the wellbeing in the country.
“It is not really important [for men to go for DNA paternity tests]. If you have raised your child, that is your child. Biology doesn’t matter. No one is looking for him [the child] after all. So, stay with your child in order to keep harmony. Because if you hear people killing each other because of DNA, why are you even going for it?” Ms Muhanga said.
“Anything that you don’t know can’t kill you. If you don’t know that that is not your child, it won’t break your heart. But when you find out, your heart will be broken,” she added.
The minister was speaking during the launch of the “Public health fellowship programme-laboratory leadership programme” in Kampala yesterday.
Her remarks come amid recent reports of violence in families due to DNA paternity test results, with at least a murder case in Mpigi District last week attributed to negative DNA paternity test results.
Speaking during the same event yesterday, Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general for health services, said laboratories that are conducting sensitive tests should be more responsible.
“As laboratory leaders, you need to know how to communicate results and the right channels to follow. In the DNA [paternity] tests, you don’t just carry out the tests and throw results [to the complaining man] and say ‘that is not your child’,” Dr Mwebesa said.
On the programme that was launched, the minister said it would improve efficiency in service delivery and the experience of patients while in hospitals.
“This programme is good because it includes inhumaneness in the training [of health workers]. People go and train but sometimes they don’t know how to deal with human beings. So, once they are managing laboratories, they are only not trained to manage the laboratories but also how to manage their clients and their workmates,” Ms Muhanga said.
