Makerere University Business School (MUBS) Guild President Bruno Kamoga has said it’s at the university level that young people get more exposed to HIV and AIDS.

He said girls go for sugar daddies while the boys go for sugar mummies who give them money to buy accessories to fit in society, and in return, “they get the virus.”

He noted that while at university, students get more acquainted with the life of partying, often ending up sleeping with strangers, exposing them to the virus.

However, he explained that the institution was helping students improve their lives through different entrepreneurship activities.

Kamoga was speaking at the National HIV and Aids Symposium MUBS. The three-day event started on Tuesday and will end on Thursday, October 10, 2022.

Young people more vulnerable

According to an annual Joint AIDS report by Uganda AIDS Commission, young people (10-24 years) are more vulnerable to HIV infection, with 43% of the cases occurring in this age group.

Among young people, adolescent girls and young women are even more vulnerable to HIV infection; four in five (79%) of new HIV infections in young people occur in adolescent girls and young women aged 10-24 years.

People living with HIV are estimated at 1.400,000. These have increased from 1,100,000, and it is not a failure. The anti-retroviral therapy is doing well, and people living with HIV are not dying.