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Factors Attributing to Ugandas Fight Against the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
While Uganda's achievement in reducing the incidence of HIV infections from an average of 18.5% in 1992 to about 5.0% in 2000, has been widely acclaimed, the relationship between the factors cited for this success to specific interventions at the community level needs verification. All the actors involved in the battle appreciate the fact that a lot more needs to be done to bring under control the HIV/AIDS scourge in Uganda. They also recognized that critical interventions, especially community sensitization and education, must be sustained at a high level in order to prevent people still free of the disease from contracting HIV. The factors listed in Figure 3 were expressed by the various agencies as contributing to the success of Uganda's efforts against HIV/AIDS.
The evidence of these achievements on the HIV/ADS scene in the country are noted at several levels:
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- Political commitment and support for HIV/AIDS is found at all levels of the county's leadership. Although no specific laws or regulations on HIV/AIDS have been enacted, government acceptance of the HIV/AIDS problem and commitment to the HIV/AIDS control programs have encouraged spontaneous and positive response from the people within and outside Uganda. This has provided a strong foundation for actions on HIV/AIDS: mobilization of financial and technical support from donors to the country programme, establishment of a diversity of interventions through multi-sectoral involvement of players at many levels including community groups.
- Factual presentation of the AIDS situation in the country through all avenues including both local and international mass media, public addresses, traditional communication systems and seminars at varying technical and operational levels have created widespread awareness on the disease, its prevention and avoidance. Availability of testing facilities and counseling services in many parts of the country has given AIDS a new identity away from the mystical beliefs once held by many.
- Uganda was early to recognize that HIV/AIDS was not just a health problem but an epidemic that had deleterious and wide ranging consequences on all areas of the country's wellbeing and development. Faced with such a situation, it was vital that the war against HIV/AIDS takes centre-stage among the country's priorities and is fought through strategies that emphasized Multi sectoral and multilevel participation. Also, this Multi-sectoral approach needed to be coordinated at a very high position in the hierarchy of the country's governance, hence, the establishment of the AIDS Commission in the Presidents Office to give it the kind of muscle required to hold this multifaceted program together.
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FUTURE DIRECTION OF HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES IN UGANDA
On 16 July 2001, The Uganda Government launched a new project; The Uganda AIDS Control Project. It is financed by a World Bank credit of US$ 47.5 million through the Multi Country AIDS Programme (MAP). The purpose of the project is to scale up the national response to HIV/AIDS especially by:
- Incorporating all sectors including the Civil Society Organizations (CSO);
- Sustaining and expanding the on-going interventions and activities; and
- Facilitating greater participation of local communities throughout the country.
To respond to the shortcomings experienced during the STI Control Project, more emphasis has been put on capacity building for better planning at all levels, improved service delivery for prevention and care to the public and increased research into the different aspects of the epidemic including definitive treatment and vaccination.
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