In the age when people are aware of the risky behaviours that can lead to the spread of HIV every urban centre in Uganda seems to be singing to another tune – of the unbothered and unconcerned argues Linda Lillian.
In the age when people are aware of the risky behaviours that can lead to the spread of HIV every urban centre in Uganda seems to be singing to another tune – of the unbothered and unconcerned.
Over twenty years of sensitisation on HIV can now be commemorated. Uganda was once torn by war and then HIV yet the tear of the years still remains in how many more Ugandans will be testing HIV positive tomorrow.
It is no longer hidden that the prevalence rate is going high again despite the information, education and communication strategies put in place.
In Kabarole district where the prevalence has gone up to 11.3% trailer drivers are displaying behaviour similar to Rakai in the 1980s when a high level of unsafe sex led to a catastrophic loss of people to AIDS. At Don’s pub, a popular spot for the sex trade in Fort Portal, the youth flock including students from the prominent tertiary institutions. Similarly, at 24-7, a hot pub doubling as a night club in Lira, the sex trade is roaring. The speculation is that one of the outcomes of the long, weary Kony rebellion has been a rise in sex as a commodity for sale and buying as many women, mostly single mothers, seek to survive. How desperate they are will be a big part in how safe they are with their clients.
Meanwhile, a health assistant at Fort Portal Municipality bemoans the situation from a cultural point of view. He points out how the attitude of ‘omusaija tayangwa’ (a man can never be refused) has killed many of the Batooro people.
Uganda at 50 years of independence is facing the probability of another tragedy. Could it be that the cliché of ‘history repeating itself’ in the case of HIV/AIDS will be proven practically? The thought of it creates darkness in a tunnel of health qualms, especially as we see how the Ministry of Health struggles to raise its budget while government continues to minimise it in favour of Ministry of Defence budget allocation.
Meanwhile, a lack of resources, neglect and corruption remain at the top of health centre offences leading to further propagation of HIV.
The worst of course on the list of health centre faults is the alleged selling of HIV negative results to otherwise HIV positive people who desire to hide their status from would-be partners as has been reported by the media in the last few years. For instance, in November 2010 a journalist writing in the Independent Magazine under the pseudo name of Joe Jones described how an individual was specialising in forging HIV/AIDS results having colluded with a money hungry lab technician to falsify results.
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