THE fight against HIV/AIDS should focus on vulnerable groups including refugees, internally displaced persons, fishing communities, truck drivers, sex workers and the disabled, President Yoweri Museveni has said.
“Detailed studies in Uganda have found these to be driving the AIDS infections upwards. These groups are normally hard to reach,” said the President in a speech read by ethics and integrity minister Dr. Nsaba Buturo.
This was at the launch of the IGAD Regional HIV/AIDS Partnership Programme at Serena Hotel yesterday.
IGAD is a regional grouping consisting of Djibouti, Eriteria, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda as its members.
The four-year $15m project to be hosted in Uganda, will be financed by the World Bank under the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund.
The project aims at strengthening collaboration in addressing HIV/AIDS. It targets refugees, IDPs, cross-border and mobile populations in IGAD states.
Museveni hailed the spirit of brotherhood among the member states and for uniting to fight HIV/AIDS. He said the ABC strategy was still relevant in the fight against AIDS, but added that there is need to embrace other strategies to reduce infection rates.
“Programmes like prevention of mother to child transmission must be scaled up and we must support efforts to find an AIDS vaccine,” he said.
