Peter Mugagga

THE 18th International AIDS Conference was recently held in Austria with delegates from across the world including prominent names such as Bill Gates and former US president Bill Clinton. The conference ended with so many unanswered questions, key among them was the failure by several governments to invest heavily in the right strategies to address HIV/AIDS.

Uganda is one of the countries that continue to evade investing in the tested and proven approaches to addressing the scourge. There are over 500,000 people who are at risk of losing their lives to AIDS if they do not access the highly needed ARVs in the coming months.

As a country, we have not done much to increase equal access to treatment by availing drugs and fighting stigma and discrimination.

Focus on reducing stigma and discrimination increases the number of people who go for testing and treatment. Many people still fear to know their HIV status.

Many Ugandans cannot bear the feeling of loneliness, hopelessness and being judged and labelled morally wrong because sex is not something usually discussed in the open.

As a condition to access HIV/AIDS funds, countries world over have been asked to sign the 2010 Vienna Declaration which would see that Uganda recognises and grants rights to the gay and lesbian.

The simple question to ask is; are we, as a nation, going to bend to the pressure to accept and legalise these practices in the country? What if we do not?

Uganda was highlighted among the countries that have failed to appreciate that high poverty levels and gender inequalities are the leading drivers of the continued spread and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

Whereas it is true that several infections are attributed to multiple sexual relationships, it is also evidently true that the consequences of poverty and gender inequality increase the risk of HIV/AIDS infection.

However, it continues to elude Ugandans that prevention of HIV/AIDS in poor communities might not be accomplished if development initiatives to assist people to overcome poverty and gender inequality are not carried out.

The writer is the programme manager for the Foundation for Child Protection