A recent survey by TASO of its three regional centers Mbale, Tororo and Soroti has found HIV prevalence among youth in rural areas to be higher than in adults and married couples.
This was revealed by TASO’s Mbale centre manager Mr. Kimera Boogere during TASO’s seventeenth annual general meeting (AGM) last weekend (8-9 October 2011).
Mr. Kimera explained that, although there has been a reduction in the number of people turning up for HIV testing, on close monitoring it has been discovered that the majority of those who tested positive for HIV were children aged 0-17 and youth aged 18-30, mostly from rural areas.
He also noted that there is an increase in the number of child clients for HIV services with at least 744 currently on antiretroviral therapy (ART) compared to 250 in 2009. Around 1,562 youths are testing positive for HIV, an indication that HIV prevalence is slowly turning its trend to the young generation.
“At the moment, we do not have data on male prevalence rate because most of them shun testing. We have also registered a high HIV prevalence among children and youth especially in rural areas although the number of child clients is high overall. We are tabulating data and soon we shall present it in full percentages as of 2011,” Mr. Kimera said.
Mr. Stephen Kamiza, 22, a TASO client, argued that the increase of HIV prevalence among youths and children is due to “laxity” by infected parents to use prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) methods to ensure new born babies do not contract HIV either at birth or in the process of child development.
Mr. Kamiz,a who himself was born with HIV, says most of the youth and children found to be HIV positive today have the virus due to a lack of knowledge about PMTCT products, which prepares an easy ground for them to acquire the virus at childhood level or during child development.
“I was born with the virus and I have positively lived with it for 22 years now. I want to call upon HIV positive parents to practice PMTCT to help their babies from contracting the virus either at birth or during childhood development. The high prevalence rate among children and youth in rural areas is because people there are ignorant about this method,” Mr. Kamiza said.
Mr. James Wataka, a client representative on the TASO board, condemned the government’s move to set up a law to criminalize HIV transmission saying this law will “traumatize patients and make them feel neglected in society, which quickens their death”.
“Instead of setting up a criminal law on HIV, government should ensure that modalities to reduce the HIV infection rate are upheld. I believe that if preventive measures are observed, the spread of the virus will automatically reduce other than victimizing those living with it,” Mr. Wataka said.
The aim of TASO’s AGM was to review the organization’s achievements between 2009 and 2010 and devise measures for 2011/12 to ensure a world without HIV.