The Parliament in Uganda has drafted a number of new laws and amended several existing ones in its attempts to tackle the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country.Yet, despite its continous efforts, the journey is far from over, says a Member of Parliament.
Hon.Alex Bakunda has been a Member of the Parliament of Uganda for the governing National Resistance Movement since 2006. He is a former public administrator.
AIDS in Uganda was initially known as “slim” (tiny) due to the physical wasting of the victim’s body. By 1970, the disease started spreading to major areas especially on the shores of Lake Victoria, the country’s largest fresh-water body.
Due to its complexity, little was
known about the disease. It was not until 1982 that the first case was diagnosed as AIDS. Prior to 1982, the disease was being largely addressed at local community level. In 1986, the then Health Minister announced to the World Health Assembly that there was HIV in Uganda, and the first AIDS control programme was established.The pro- gramme focused on providing safe blood products and educating people about the risks. In 1987, 16 volun- teers who had been personally affect- ed by HIV/AIDS came together to found the community organization
TASO (The AIDS Support Organization).A year later, when the first national survey to assess the extent of the epidemic was conduct- ed, it was found that the HIV average prevalence was nine per cent of the population. By 1991, rapidly attacking the
population, the prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-24 had peaked to 21 per cent and, according to UNAIDS estimates, the national prevalence peaked at 15 per cent. Uganda’s President, H.E.Yoweri
Museveni, quickly moved into action to curb the spread of the disease, which had greatly penetrated the national army, threatening the coun- try’s security. Mr Museveni’s response did not stopped with the army. It went throughout to the people he led. Unfortunately, due to the rate at which the disease was spreading, it was no longer a pandemic, but a crisis. His message was simple: avoiding AIDS was a patriotic duty of every Ugandan. To show his involvement, he
embarked on a countrywide tour to educate Ugandans that AIDS had no cure but nonetheless could be avoided.
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The message was open to everyone: “Abstain from sex before marriage. In case you are already married, remain faithful and use a condom if you can’t.” Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS has
continued to rise despite efforts by the world to curb the disease. By 2007, a total of 33.2 million adults and children are estimated to be liv- ing with the disease in the world, of which more than half live in Sub- Saharan Africa and Asia. According to UNAIDS, A Global view of HIV infections, the HIV preva- lence rate in Sub-Saharan Africa has shown that between 20-39 per cent of adults between the age of 15 and 39 live with the virus.Although its not yet clear why the two continents had the highest number, scholars attribute the problem to poverty, poor health systems, cultural and religious norms, high levels of literacy and low status of women in society. The problem is also attributed to
high burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and presence of high- ly virulent strains of HIV.This has also greatly affected the agricultural labour force.According to the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO),AIDS