Inadequate Services a Threat to AIDS Fight in Uganda

Health officials and medical experts have said inadequate HIV/AIDS services, especially in rural areas and growing complacency among people leading to risky sexual behaviours are threatening to reverse the achievements Uganda has made in the fight against the scourge.

Aware of the threats, HIV Free Africa-Uganda, a nongovernmental organisation, has launched interventions targeting the rural areas that cannot reliably access HIV/AIDS services including Voluntary Counseling and Testing and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission.

Speaking at the launch in Kabatema village in Kaliro Sub-county, Lyantonde on Friday, the organisation president, Dr Willington Amutuhaire, said majority of rural peasants still live in ignorance of HIV/AIDS due to limited interventions and concentration of service providers in urban areas.

"Most HIV/AIDS services are urban centered and there is not enough from government since health centres in rural areas do not have drugs and trained health personnel. That's the reason we are targeting the rural communities," he said.

Lyantonde HIV/AIDS focal person Stephens Kajaaya said they have only two HIV/AIDS treatment centres in the district: at Lyantonde Muslim Health centre III and Lyantonde Hospital. The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, he said, is at 8.5 per cent above the national 6.3 per cent.

The district has an estimated population of 120,000 people. Dr Amutuhaire said HIV Free Africa-Uganda will establish HIV/AIDS satellite treatment centres in various regions of the country.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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