By Rebecca Muyizzi
Over the past two decades, President Yoweri Museveni has combined efforts with local, national and international organizations to campaign against the HIV/AIDS scourge, which has already claimed the lives of millions of people.
However, it is sad to note that AIDS continues not only to kill millions of people but also lower the life expectancy of Ugandans. This has also affected the country’s labor force, reduced agricultural output and food security and also weakened educational and the health services.
Surprisingly, many people don’t believe that Aids still kills. As much as HIV/ AIDS is a subject that has been talked about globally for many years, in many media channels, the society is still complacent.
There is an assumption that, HIV/AIDS is like any other treatable disease. A friend of mine who works with the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) had this to say, “The current HIV prevalence rate in Uganda today is estimated at 6.5 among the adults and 0.7 among children. The number of new infections in 2009 was 120, 000, which exceeds the number of annual death toll in 2009 which was 64, 000. So it is feared that HIV prevalence rate in Uganda may be rising.’’
However, though many organizations like TASO, the Uganda Aids Commission, JCRC, government and private hospitals have come up to help reverse the situation, the HIV/AIDS scourge still remains a challenge to individuals, families and societies at large. One wonders why the HIV prevalence rate is escalating. Uganda as a country begun to implement routine or opt –out testing, where anybody can enter a health care facility, government hospitals and is tested.
One of the reasons is that the availability of drugs like the ARVS delays the onset of the disease. Many people may look healthy but when they are already infected with the virus.
It can be believed that ARVs drugs have changed the perception of HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a treatable manageable disease. This may have reduced the fear surrounding HIV and in return, it has caused an increase in risky behaviors.
One wonders, what can be done to change the behavior in society. If one talks about abstinence from sex, especially those who are not married, it is unbelievable, the society thinks it is not possible. Abstinence could be one of the controversial areas in HIV prevention campaign. A teenager in my locality said, “We are in our adolescent age, trying to adventure in all activities including sex, how can someone say that abstinence is the way to go?” I was so surprised to hear such a statement from a young boy. However, this revealed to me something which I thought would help parents, counselors and guardians. It is not enough to tell the youth that Aids is still a deadly disease, but there is need to keep praying for them, such that God assists them to understand the importance of being male and female creatures.
In the old days, the virtue of virginity was so important and respected. Unfortunately these days’ young people shun it.
President Museveni has been encouraging the married people to be faithful to their partners. He normally uses the phrase “Zero- grazing”. This term comes from the agricultural practice of tying a cow or a goat to a post restricting it to a zero shaped section of grass. Unfortunately, in Uganda today there is an increase in multiple partnering. An official from the Ministry of Health made a comment that the number of sexually active Ugandans who are reported to have more than two or three sexual partners has increased in the previous years.
What more could be done to stop the scourge that continues to spread like a wild fire?
The writer is a postgraduate MA student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University.
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