Health ministry set to carry out HIV assessment indicator survey

Health Ministry is set to carry out a population impact HIV assessment survey which will culminate into the country's current statics on HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.

Health experts said the current statistics for people living with HIV / AIDS were last compiled five years ago.
 
The preparations are set to start in June and the ministry is expected to come up with findings on the current state of the country and to see how far the country has gone in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Program Manger AIDS Control Programme, Dr. Joshua Musinguzi explained that the ministry in partnership with Centre for Disease Control, International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs - ICAP, the Uganda Bureau of Statics and Uganda Virus Research Institute, UNAIDS and Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) will conduct the six months findings.

The findings will focus on the population and the officials are expected to go back to the communities take blood samples among adults to check on incidents of CD4 count levels, viral load of about 250,000 adults and 100,000 children below the age of five.

He said that the country shall be able to tell the number of incidents at the national level, for clients on ARVS their blood samples will be checked to find out the amount of drugs in their bodies, and also to find out whether the patients' viral load   is high.

During the National Dialogue on Policy discussion review organized by THETA -Uganda in collaboration with Uganda Aids Commission and the Ministry of Health, Dr. Peter Kyambadde from AIDS Control Programme, said the ministry will come up with the new figures of patients with HIV.

He said that the ministry will also put tools in health centers which will to be used to access information from patients who will have reported at any health facility.

In partnership with other stakeholders, the ministry will ensure that the tools offer user friendly services to all clients who will have visited the health facilities countrywide.

The officials at the dialogue learnt that Most at Risk Population (MARPS) are denied services at the health facilities whenever they present themselves with infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Kyambadde noted that the tools will have a public health approach, in which the patients will be given a chance to speak to the health workers, and express their sickness. 

"We want to have a way of talking to the patients and give them income generating activities to draw them out of prostitution and other illegal sexual acts," Dr. Carol Nakazzi from the Uganda Aids Commission said.

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