By Arthur Oyako
Yesterday a friend gave me information that should have shocked me but it did not. She said the HIV infection rates in Uganda had a hit a new all-time high.
“In Uganda 356 people get infected with HIV every day,” she said.
While this is a high number to live with, the country has lately taken on trends that would, if not encourage the spread of AIDS, provide a platform for an escalation of the pandemic.
Looking at where the Uganda HIV/AIDS story begun, it is unfortunate to note that what was once an international case study for major populations grappling with the AIDS scourge, Uganda is slowly becoming a failure at managing the once health threatening pandemic.
The scope of Uganda's success published in The Lancet Medical Journal in 2002 questioned the dramatic decline that Ugandan leaders had boasted about over the years.
The same report claimed that statistics were distorted through inaccurate extrapolation of data from small urban clinics to the entire population, nearly 90 per cent of whom live in rural areas. Also, recent trials of the HIV drug nevirapine have come under intense scrutiny and criticism.
As if that is not bad enough, the Global Alliance on Vaccines (GAVI) alongside the Global Fund have yet again cut funds towards the fight of HIV in Uganda. Their reason for this move is that Ugandans are corrupt and cannot account for the monies they receive.
One wonders if that money would not have come in handy in crafting some radio and television advertisements for a media awareness campaign to step up the AIDS fight. Would we not style up our act if not just this once?
Just last year, the BBC carried a report on the increase of HIV in Uganda, and when I shared it with a few colleagues they jokingly told me that life was too short to live worrying about HIV. And besides, there was a way of living a healthy and productive life for decades to come. In short, there was nothing to worry about.
One day at an adolescent’s seminar at one of the upscale secondary schools, I realised that while there was a general fear of contracting HIV/AIDS, the fear of getting pregnant was higher amongst most students.
That begs the question, what has become of society? Is there need to revisit the many AIDS campaigns and policies from the early 1990’? Is there a need to redesign these messages, and if so, who should these messages target?
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| Canon Gideon Byamugisha, one of Uganda's leading AIDS activists. |
The challenge here is that the same girls that we (my age mates and I) would have probably felt more comfortable associating with are also the very same ones being targeted by the older men, including those who are married. The older women are no better at protecting the younger boys either, and yet there is a likelihood that consistence at condom use for the sexually active is bound to fall as people become regular sex partners.
Arthur Oyako is a 2nd year Masters student of Journalism and Communication, Makerere University, Kampala.
Bad-mouthing the condom…
ReplyDeleteUganda is once again an HIV/Aids hot-spot, yes. Hard-earned gains in the fight against AIDS are grinding down hill.
I am one of those who belittle the ABC-prevention-model-activists who frown on additional models like male circumcision and Condon use.
I understand funding priority of HIV/AIDS goes mainly to activities promoting abstinence and fidelity…
But since the biblical times, who can stop the vice of sex, legal or not? How many men (and women) of God have yielded to the lure/enticement/pull/incentive of sex?
Moralistic faith groups that bad-mouth the condom (I gather that one of them, the Catholic Church, rightly reconsidered its stance against condoms) should be encouraged to adapt to contemporary world challenges.
For potential rape and teenage defilement victims, with a risk of catching HIV, we should import the ‘teeth condoms’ already in use in South Africa. They tear the rapist’s penis to shreds!
...and to ask: What factors have tamed University students to have them ranked (in several reports now)with low HIV/Aids prevalence rates in Uganda?
ReplyDeleteGood points Arthur. I think what is most disturbing is the increase in HIV among married people or those in long term relationships because in one way or another we will all end up there, if we are not already there. Over the years President Museveni has encouraged young people to marry early on the assumption that such a move would compliment other strategies to fight HIV Aids( his children all married early). But now that thinking has been debunked by the latest trend in HIV infections among married or people in long term relations. What is the cause of this trend? One reason is what I call the 'demystification of sex' which ironically was the basis for the early success Uganda had in her fight against HIV Aids. Museveni rightly argued that people should openly speak about sex. At the time even merely eyeing a girl could get a boy a serious drubbing on the back by some conservative parents. But now it appears that people have dangerously relaxed their attitude towards HIV Aids, sex and even the institution of marriage( see what happens in the pubs. See the married guys tangling with Uni students... see what the 'kids' do to themselves). However, I have noticed some billboards around town urging middle aged and even old couples to go for HIV testing so they can know their status. This, in my view, is a right move and a recognition by actors in the health sector of the need to re-direct their communications to the most affected based on the latest HIV/Aids trends in the country. But ultimately it boils down to having a sense of responsibility either as an individual or as a couple.
ReplyDeleteGood observations there about the HIV problem. Unfortunately, there are not many proposals, suggestions or ideas being forward on how the trend can be reversed.
ReplyDeleteAs some people have already observed, HIV is an intricate cross-cutting problem for which people are still scratching heads to find practicable solutions.
As communication scholars, we are required to put forward proposals and suggestions on what can and should be done.
So, instead of posing questions such as, “what has become of society? Is there need to revisit the many AIDS campaigns and policies from the early 1990’? Is there a need to redesign these messages, and if so, who should these messages target,” we as the ‘communication experts’ can put forward the answers.
Who do we expect to provide the answers to these pertinent questions if we don’t?
Here is my take. First, with the donor funding taps running dry, the government should immediately consider increasing the budget to the anti-HIV campaign. Secondly, there is an urgent need to decentralise the fight against the disease.
The local authorities at the grass roots and community based FM stations should be empowered to carry HIV messages.
Thirdly, HIV messages should be taken to the classroom to target students at all levels of learning. If it becomes part of the curriculum, the better.
Lastly, the availability of ARVs has brought about complacence, which is why more young girls are now more worried about pregnancy than HIV infection, as Arthur points out.
This calls for more vigilance and sensitisation messages targeting HIV positive people and the whole population at large.