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HIV infection soars
By: Charles Ariko, New Vision
Uganda - August 12, 2009
The number of people getting infected with the HIV virus is increasing each year, with 130,000 Ugandans contracting it annually.
This was revealed in Kampala yesterday at the launch of a campaign aimed at encouraging people to test for HIV/AIDS and avoid the pandemic.
The director general of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli, presided over the function. Under the campaign which will run from August to December, people will get free counseling and testing.
Kihumuro urged the Government to reinvent new strategies to fight HIV/AIDS. “To defeat HIV/AIDS, we need to start a new social movement to fight it,” Kihumuro said.
“We have seen people’s behaviour change inthe past. That is why we managed to reduce the prevalence to the current 6.4%. It can be done again if we are to achieve our goal of reducing the disease,” Kihumuro said.
Dr. Peninah Iutung, the East and West Africa Bureau Chief for the AIDS Health Care Foundation, said HIV-positive people will be referred to health centers where they can access anti-retroviral treatment.
The campaign, dubbed “Stay Alive/Love Condoms,” is being coordinated by Care Uganda, a non-governmental organisation in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
- New Vision
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/19/690931
