There are an estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV in Uganda, which includes 150,000 children. Across the country, an estimated 64,000 people died from AIDS related illnesses in 2009 and 1.2 million children had been orphaned by Uganda’s devastating epidemic.
Uganda was one of the first countries in the Sub Saharan Africa to experience the devastating impact of HIV and to take action to control the epidemic with support from foreign aid. It has tried to carry out advocacy on the high prevalence of the epidemic but is now at an important crossroads in its epidemic.
After a dramatic decline in HIV prevalence following an early comprehensive HIV prevenion campaign there are still signs that the number of people living with HIV in the country maybe increasing once more.
The Ministry of Health has predicated that the current rate of the new HIV infections will seriously impede economic growth particularly as HIV tends to affect people in their most economically productive years.
In order to avoid this, Uganda needs to take a serious look at infection trends and behavior to identify why this rise may be occurring and how to remedy it. Experts believe that complacency and normalization of HIV may be leading to an increase in risky behavior that early prevention campaigns sought to reverse. Many Ugandans now think that, because we have lived with HIV for so many years, it is a normal condition among the population.
Uganda clearly needs to revive and adapt its HIV prevention program, moving away from abstinence. Only comprehensive programs, which incorporate not only abstinence, fidelity and condom use, but also HIV testing and the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) should be perused.
Although Uganda aims to achieve an HIV free generation through PMTCT, as well as advice to ‘abstain, be faithful, use a condom’, advocacy and mass sensitization must be at high levels as should compulsory counseling and testing. Since many people are illiterate, advocacy can help.
An estimated 43% of new infections occur among people engaged in mutually monogamous, heterosexual relationships. Therefore, people should be advised to go for HIV testing before marriage, abstain, or use condom.
The Uganda government should be swift to apply the flexibilities in the TRIPS agreement as away to gain a favourable chance of importing in new, generic ARVs to increase access to HIV medication.
