HIV on the rise in Uganda

2009-07-16 12:52

Kampala - After a dramatic fall in the incidence of HIV/Aids in Uganda in the 1990s, the pandemic is spreading again in the east African country, a government report released this week showed.

A little over 90 000 people contracted the HIV virus in 2008, nudging the infection rate to 6.4% from 6%  four years ago, The New Vision newspaper on Thursday quoted the report that was released by the presidency on Tuesday as saying.

Of the new infections in adults (15-49 years), 43% occurred in people who said they had been in monogamous relationships for the past 12 months, the report was quoted as showing.

The remainder of the newly-infected were people who were reported being in multiple concurrent relationships.

Uganda has around 1 million people carrying HIV, the virus that causes Aids. The country has lost a similar number of people to the disease since it was first diagnosed among Ugandans in the early 1980s.

A shift in concentration

Health officials attribute the increase in the rates of HIV infection from 6% four years ago to a number of factors, including more lax attitudes among the population to prevention because of the increasing availability of life-prolonging Aids drugs.

They say some people mistake antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for a cure.

"A total of 91 546 adults contracted HIV in 2008. This translates to about 20 commuter taxis filled with people getting infected daily," The New Vision quoted the report as saying.

Commercial sex workers, their clients and partners of clients contributed 10%  of new infections.

The report also noted a shift in concentration of the epidemic from younger to older people.

The increase in infections represents a setback for the country, where HIV peaked at around 15% of the population in the early 1990s but was dramatically reduced through an aggressive government prevention campaign focusing on abstinence, condom use and fidelity.

- SAPA