UAC To Oversee AIDS Activities â€" Bukenya

By John EremuTHE President’s Office has directed that all HIV/AIDS programmes be coordinated by the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC).The directive issued yesterday by the Minister for the Presidency, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, follows reports that bickering among the various groups involved in AIDS programmes was likely to derail the fight against the disease.The World Health Organisation (WHO) country representative, Dr. Oladapo Walker, and the UNAIDS country programme advisor, Dr. Jantine Jacobi, yesterday met Bukenya and voiced concern over the coordination of HIV/AIDS programmes. “I am tired of this bickering and I am glad WHO is raising it. Anything on AIDS should be coordinated by UAC,” Bukenya said but refused to name those bickering. He directed that UAC and officials handling AIDS programmes in the ministries of health, education, gender and defence meet in his office on Thursday at 11:00am to iron out the issue.“We are being praised by the whole world as leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS but I am worried things can collapse,” the angry Bukenya said during the meeting in his office. “The coordination of AIDS programmes is the responsibility of UAC and all the other players must act within the UAC framework. I want us to be the leaders in the world in the fight against AIDS. We should not lose track because of in-fighting,” he added. UAC is under the President’s Office and is currently headed by Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli.Oladapo said the UN agencies involved in HIV/AIDS programmes were in agreement that UAC coordinates the programmes including negotiating for subsidised rates of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. Bukenya urged WHO and UNAIDS to make ARVs more accessible to the rural people.Ends