Uganda has made great progress in combating the HIV and AIDS epidemic and its effects with a significant reduction in new infections, HIV prevalence, and AIDS-related mortality over the past 10 years.

According to the Epi-data (SPECTRUM), the country estimates, 1.4 million people are living with HIV and AIDS, AIDS-related deaths had declined by 67% from 51,000 in 2010 to 17,000 in 2020 and new HIV infections had declined by 60% from 88,000 to 54,000 in 2021.

The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) has been working with the Government since 1987 and registered successes in curbing the HIV epidemic in Uganda.

Dr Yunus Miya, the head of programmes at TASO-Uganda said the organisation has provided comprehensive HIV prevention, care and treatment.

Within the context of prevention, Miya says there are a number of services ranging from behavioural change communication and biomedical intervention including Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and voluntary medical male circumcision. Others include condom provision.

He explained that for care and treatment, there is a comprehensive package of services from HIV testing to enrolment on treatment, provision of Antiretroviral therapy (ART), screening and treatment of opportunistic infections. Others are psychosocial services for those who are on treatment.

Uganda is one of 14 countries globally that achieved the 90-90-90 targets by 2020.

According to the Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA) report 2020, by the end of 2020, Uganda has achieved 81% HIV testing; 96% of those tested and found positive have been put on treatment and 92% of those on treatment have achieved Viral Load Suppression.

Whereas there has been tremendous progress in the fight against HIV and AIDs, statistics show that 79% of new HIV infections among young people occur in Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) aged 10 to 24 years.

Miya said there were more new HIV infections among Adolescent Young Girls and Young Women (AGYW) than their male counterparts.

What needs to be done

Miya called for a need to institute interventions that target the specific sub populations especially AGYW. In addition, he said HIV information needs to be favorable to these specific groups.

For instance, the use of their peers and colleagues to deliver the prevention messages as well as prevention methods to them and make it more adoptable and more meaningful to their own social context.

Global Fund involvement with TASO

According to Tonnie Luyimbazi, the country coordinator for Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund, TASO has been implementing the Global Fund grants since 2012 to date and gained a lot of experience.

He said they have also built a lot of capacity in terms of managing and implementing Global Fund grants.

“These are grants that have very strict measures of utilization, and Global Fund is one of those organizations that have demonstrated the capacity to manage these grants and implement them as expected,’’ Luyimbazi.