HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategies in Uganda

"Uganda is at the forefront in initiating and implementing strategies for the prevention of HIV spread. this has contributed to the drop in national HIV prevalence from 14th in the early 90's to 8currently. The main preventive strategies have been general information of the public and use of male ; and currently female condoms. Abstteinism is advocated; especially among the youth; who are generally advised to wait ""a little longer"". Universal Primary Education (UPE); apart from educating children may have a trade-off of keeping them longer in school a time when children are not expected to be sexually active. Civil leaders especially religious leaders; community aunts; teachers and even politicians have contributed to educating the youth on sex and sexuality. Social networking has brought many youth face to face with the realities of HIV/AIDS - at funerals; sexual contacts of the deceased person may be stealthily pointed out. This may ""shock"" the youth into realities of HIV/AIDS. Openness in communicating with the youth has been an important factor in controlling the the spread of HIV. This is through School Health Programs; Billboards. Plays and Mass Communication. Billboards and Mass advertisements of condoms may embarrass some; but are important in getting the message across to the youth. This openness has often been criticised by ""upright"" elders; and some religious leaders who complain that often young children may be misinformed about and misunderstand various facts on sex and sexuality. Others feel that adolescents not ready for sex may decide to experiement from the messages they hear and see. However; as a common syaing goes; it is better to face the embarrassment of children learning about sex early; than to repeaddly look down into graves of ones' children; and raising orphaned grandchildren."

Country Specific Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention; basic Problems Encountered in Implementating Prevention and Control Strategies

"Two questions are avanced as regards prevention strategies and control - ""Are interventions effective in preventing HIV infection?"" and ""Are the current interventions having an impact on the epidemic in Uganda?"" ""Yes"" is the answer to the former and ""no"" to the latter. Experiences from several developing countries have demonstrated a variety of approaches that to some extent have yielded results in HIV infection prevention. Indicators of the result include number of condoms sold or distributed; reported condom use; reduction in STD rates; and somewhat a reduction in HIV incidence. The approaches include:- national media programs from the Ministry of Health; TASO; AIC; to mention but afew; condom social marketing e.g. protector; community mobilisation approaches (e.g. Peer Education by the AIDS challenge Youth Club and other youth organisation); HIV counselling and testing by AIC and/or clinic based programs (TASO). Lessons Learned: While these interventions may slow down the epidemic in selected groups (e.g. Prostitutes in selected locations like Kampala); there is little evidence to indicate that any of these interventions has had a significant impact in slowing the epidemic at country level. Several reasons are advanced for this:- Inadequate financial and political commitment for large-scale programs; social; cultural and religious norms and political resistance to implementing effective interventions; and lack of comprehensive approaches and strategic planning at the country level. Conclusions: therefore even if an AIDS vaccine were produced tomorrow; priority should be emphasised on prevention as the most important method of controlling the HIV epidemic."

Country specific approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention, basic problems encountered in implementing prevention and control strategies in Uganda

The challenge of HIV/AIDS is a big concern and calls for joint effort in the prevention and control of the disease. There is no single approach to this problem unless the youth get up to realise that something must be done. NGOs have played a commendable part in imparting knowledge and skills to the youth but this is not sufficient enough to guarantee safety. Sex Education has to be emphasized by parents; teachers; politicians; and religious leaders. the Youth should play a key role in HIV/AIDS sensitisation to create a bigger impact to the masses who are more prone to this great tragedy. Whereas thre has been a lot of awareness about this epidemic; the majority of youths still lack information about unprotected sex; early parenting getting more than one sexual partner; taking of drugs; and over drinking

Country specific Approaches to HIV/AIDS Prevention: Basic Problems Encountered in Implementing Prevention and Control Strategies

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is caused by the weakened human body defence mechanism brought by body invasion by one retrovirus (RNA virus) HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) in Sub-Saharan Africa (in which Uganda is) accounts for over 60of the infected adults with 2 major strains of HIV 1 and HIV 2 (Joint Clinical Research Centre JCRC Journal data)