By DICTA ASIIMWE

Posted Saturday, April 20 2013 at 18:38

IN SUMMARY

• Complacency has been a major contributor to the rise because the behaviours that fuelled the epidemic at the beginning are back. The behaviours include having unprotected sex.

After Uganda’s initial success in the fight against HIV/Aids in the mid 1990s, the numbers have been on the rise since 2002, causing concern among activists and donors.

KAMPALA, 14 March 2013 (PLUSNEWS) - The Ugandan government's draft 2013/2014 budget allocates US$38.5 million to enrol a further 100,000 people living with HIV on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. But activists say the money, while welcome in a country still largely dependent on donor funds for its HIV programmes, is not sufficient to meet treatment needs.

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI

• The new regime, known as prevention of mother to child transmission option B+ was recommended by the World Health Organisation to improve maternal and paediatric health. The regime has been integrated into antenatal care services.

In East Africa, new guidelines for HIV management require all pregnant women with HIV/Aids virus to be put on anti-retroviral treatment to prevent transmission of the virus to their unborn children.

KAMPALA, 1 March 2013 (PLUSNEWS) - The condom has played a central role in Uganda's official HIV prevention strategy for over two decades, but the country has yet to get it right, with condom use declining and the government unable to meet what demand does exist.

KAMPALA, 6 February 2013 (PLUSNEWS) - The sale of HIV test kits to the public by private chemists in Uganda is causing concern among health officials, who feel that HIV testing should remain in the hands of professionals and be accompanied by counselling.

A number of pharmacies in the capital, Kampala, are stocking HIV test kits imported from China, India and several European countries; they retail for as little as 3,000 Uganda shillings (US$1.12).

Abstract (provisional)

Background

By Special Correspondent IRIN

Posted Saturday, January 19 2013 at 19:19

IN SUMMARY

• Some 62 per cent of those needing treatment were on ARVs in March 2012, up from 50 per cent in 2010.

• Recent statistics show that Uganda’s HIV prevalence has risen from 6.4 per cent to 7.3 per cent over the past five years.

Uganda needs to do more to achieve its goal of ensuring that 80 per cent of people living with HIV receive antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) by 2015, according to the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC).

KAMPALA, 7 January 2013 (PLUSNEWS) - Uganda continues to fall short of achieving its goal of ensuring that 80 percent of people living with HIV receive antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) by 2015, according to the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC).

Some 62 percent of those needing HIV treatment were on ARVs in March 2012, up from 50 percent in 2010. Uganda managed to enrol an estimated 65,493 new HIV cases on life-prolonging ARVs in 2012, bringing to 356,056 the number of those receiving ARVs, according to UAC statistics.

Chris Simkins

The members of Uganda's Watoto Children's Choir have suffered more than any child should have to -- the loss of parents from war or disease, the horror of being taken as child soldiers in Uganda's devastating civil conflict, abject poverty and the ravages of HIV / AIDS. The group,on a world tour and performing now in the United States, brings a message of hope and resilence in the face of sadness and despair.

Their dances are joyful. Their voices raise awareness about the orphaned children in Uganda.