PARENTS | ADOLESCENTS | HIV

KAMPALA - Former Chairman of the Uganda Health Services Commission Prof George Barnabas Kirya has urged parents to create time to talk to their adolescent children about the dangers of HIV and also pregnancy. 

Prof Kirya, who was also the former Vice Chancellor Makerere University, and now Chairman of the Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG), says there has to be an effort to change the various behaviours enabling the spread of HIV from one person to another especially the adolescents. 

“In the past, our mothers used to stay at home while our fathers went to work now both parents go to work. In many cases, parents do not have time to talk to their children, we should try to see and talk to our children, the adolescents about the dangers of HIV and also pregnancy," he said. 

On December 1, every year, the world marks World AIDS Day and this year, it was under the theme Equalize which emphasises eliminating the inequalities that have slowed the fight against the disease. 

“At the rate we are going, I don’t see us end HIV by 2030. It’s a wish, but I don’t see us fulfil this wish. We need change of behaviour,” Prof Kirya, an academic administrator, medical microbiologist, educator, Certified immunologist, and virologist, who was among the pioneer researchers to discover HIV in Uganda in the fishing communities said. 

According to data from UNAIDS on the global HIV response during the last two years of COVID-19 and other global crises, progress against the HIV pandemic has faltered, resources have shrunk, and millions of lives are at risk as a result.  

It says with now four decades into the HIV response, inequalities still persist for the most basic services like testing, treatment, and condoms, and even more so for new technologies.   

Young women in Africa remain disproportionately affected by HIV, while coverage of dedicated programmes for them remains too low.  

Globally, an estimated 38.4 million people are living with HIV. In 2021, an estimated 1.5 million people acquired HIV and around 650 000 people died from AIDS-related causes. 

The world has only eight years left before the 2030 goal of ending AIDS as a global health threat by having 95% of all people living with HIV know their status, 95% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection receive sustained anti-retroviral therapy, and 95% of all people receiving anti-retroviral therapy have viral suppression to stop new infections. 

“We can end AIDS – if we end the inequalities which perpetuate it,” UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said.