Museveni battles AIDS epidemic
Mar 25, 2006
UGANDA has seen its AIDS prevalence rates drop over the past decade thanks to the illustrious leadership of President Yoweri Museveni. It was once a bleak point for the county in the early 1990s and there was no imagination that the spread of the HIV virus would be curbed and Uganda would become the
By Richard Komakech
UGANDA has seen its AIDS prevalence rates drop over the past decade thanks to the illustrious leadership of President Yoweri Museveni. It was once a bleak point for the county in the early 1990s and there was no imagination that the spread of the HIV virus would be curbed and Uganda would become the first country to succeed without drugs.
HIV/AIDS prevalence rates had reached a staggering 14% with infection rates as high as 30 percent in some urban areas according to Ministry of Health records on the disease in the early 90’s. Today, that prevalence has come down to 6% and the fall is credited to a hugely successful open public health campaign championed by President Yoweri Museveni.
Since the confirmation of the first AIDS case in Uganda in 1982, it is estimated that more than 2 million Ugandans have been infected with the HIV virus. More than 900,000 people have perished from Aids-related illnesses leaving 1 million children orphaned today according to the Uganda AIDS Commission.
The President is still un-relentless. “AIDS is not very infectious. You don’t get it through handshakes, you don’t get AIDS through handshakes, and you don’t get it through insect bites. It is therefore easy to stop because it only spreads through a few ways,†Museveni said in a recent interview with British TV channel, Sky News.
When he became President in 1986, Museveni responded to evidence of a serious emerging epidemic by spearheading high-level political commitment to prevention. The charismatic leadership and broad interaction fostered the development of a multi-sectoral response in the ‘war’ against AIDS.
The multi-sectoral response prioritised the disease on the development agenda and enlisted a wide variety of national participants including ministries, community groups, faith based organisations and foreign agencies that funded projects for the fight.
In 1992, the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) was created under the President’s office to coordinate and monitor the national AIDS strategy using a National Operational Plan to guide implementing agencies, sponsor Task Forces, and encouraged the establishment of AIDS Control Programmes in other ministries including Defense, Education, Gender and Social development. Today, there are AIDS focal officers in all ministries, government parastatals and anti-AIDS organisations and services are spread countrywide.
The “Abstain—Be faithful—use a Condom†(ABC) pioneered by campaign showed Ugandans how best to protect themselves and partly as a result, infection rates fell from 18% in the 1980s to 6% in 2003. The approach, encouraged sexual Abstinence until marriage, Being faithful to marriage partners and using condoms has been the hallmark of the country’s comprehensive response to the epidemic.
Uganda, accepted the grave reality of the disease -- which is mainly transmitted through heterosexual sex -- and generated the will to fight it. The president talked openly about the disease and he pioneered the now famous ABC.
“The epidemic developed silently and took advantage of the disarray in the country’s health services, which had suffered years of turmoil and insecurity.
Access to health care was only 50% and access to safe water and sanitation was less than 30%. The health services had limited drugs and supplies, and the blood transfusion services were virtually non-existent. In these circumstances the HIV/AIDS emergency came not just as an additional burden but as a severe affliction,†says Dr. Sam Okware, the Commissioner for Community Health at the Ministry of Health.
Okware spearheaded the establishment of the AIDS control programme, a division in the ministry specially dedicated to the response against AIDS.
The campaign in the ensuing years grew into an intensive multi-media effort hinged on public sensitisation and awareness. The government embarked on a free condom distribution policy and thriving social marketing programmes undertaken by Marie Stopes International (MSI) and Population Services International (PSI) have eased access to condoms. MSI markets the Life-Guard brand while PSI works on the Protector brand. To cater for the much poorer section of society who can’t afford the sh.100 price tag of these two brands, the Ministry of Health distributed the free Engabu which was recently suspended for defects.
Voluntary HIV testing was also encouraged with regular doses of counselling and support services provided. The community drive took the form of pop songs, billboard and radio messages popularizing anti-AIDS messages and drama performances and open-air seminars on sex education were held routinely.
The changed social mores: teenagers are postponing sex, casual sex is declining, and unmarried adults are practicing abstinence. Once unheard of, more and more men and women of all ages now use condoms.
“Raising awareness was the mainstay of our initial programme. At first, we focused on instilling fear in the population, but it soon became apparent that many people were insensitive and refractory to calls for behaviour change.
"Fear could only be effective for a short time. Widening the range of prevention options to include condom use as well as avoidance of casual sexual contacts helped our programmes to gain wider acceptance,†Okware says in a 2001 World Health Organisation bulletin article: Fighting HIV/AIDS: is success possible?
That has been partly achieved in Uganda, but the new question is how to maintain the success which has now been boosted with the introduction of life lengthening anti-retroviral drugs.
UGANDA has seen its AIDS prevalence rates drop over the past decade thanks to the illustrious leadership of President Yoweri Museveni. It was once a bleak point for the county in the early 1990s and there was no imagination that the spread of the HIV virus would be curbed and Uganda would become the first country to succeed without drugs.
HIV/AIDS prevalence rates had reached a staggering 14% with infection rates as high as 30 percent in some urban areas according to Ministry of Health records on the disease in the early 90’s. Today, that prevalence has come down to 6% and the fall is credited to a hugely successful open public health campaign championed by President Yoweri Museveni.
Since the confirmation of the first AIDS case in Uganda in 1982, it is estimated that more than 2 million Ugandans have been infected with the HIV virus. More than 900,000 people have perished from Aids-related illnesses leaving 1 million children orphaned today according to the Uganda AIDS Commission.
The President is still un-relentless. “AIDS is not very infectious. You don’t get it through handshakes, you don’t get AIDS through handshakes, and you don’t get it through insect bites. It is therefore easy to stop because it only spreads through a few ways,†Museveni said in a recent interview with British TV channel, Sky News.
When he became President in 1986, Museveni responded to evidence of a serious emerging epidemic by spearheading high-level political commitment to prevention. The charismatic leadership and broad interaction fostered the development of a multi-sectoral response in the ‘war’ against AIDS.
The multi-sectoral response prioritised the disease on the development agenda and enlisted a wide variety of national participants including ministries, community groups, faith based organisations and foreign agencies that funded projects for the fight.
In 1992, the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) was created under the President’s office to coordinate and monitor the national AIDS strategy using a National Operational Plan to guide implementing agencies, sponsor Task Forces, and encouraged the establishment of AIDS Control Programmes in other ministries including Defense, Education, Gender and Social development. Today, there are AIDS focal officers in all ministries, government parastatals and anti-AIDS organisations and services are spread countrywide.
The “Abstain—Be faithful—use a Condom†(ABC) pioneered by campaign showed Ugandans how best to protect themselves and partly as a result, infection rates fell from 18% in the 1980s to 6% in 2003. The approach, encouraged sexual Abstinence until marriage, Being faithful to marriage partners and using condoms has been the hallmark of the country’s comprehensive response to the epidemic.
Uganda, accepted the grave reality of the disease -- which is mainly transmitted through heterosexual sex -- and generated the will to fight it. The president talked openly about the disease and he pioneered the now famous ABC.
“The epidemic developed silently and took advantage of the disarray in the country’s health services, which had suffered years of turmoil and insecurity.
Access to health care was only 50% and access to safe water and sanitation was less than 30%. The health services had limited drugs and supplies, and the blood transfusion services were virtually non-existent. In these circumstances the HIV/AIDS emergency came not just as an additional burden but as a severe affliction,†says Dr. Sam Okware, the Commissioner for Community Health at the Ministry of Health.
Okware spearheaded the establishment of the AIDS control programme, a division in the ministry specially dedicated to the response against AIDS.
The campaign in the ensuing years grew into an intensive multi-media effort hinged on public sensitisation and awareness. The government embarked on a free condom distribution policy and thriving social marketing programmes undertaken by Marie Stopes International (MSI) and Population Services International (PSI) have eased access to condoms. MSI markets the Life-Guard brand while PSI works on the Protector brand. To cater for the much poorer section of society who can’t afford the sh.100 price tag of these two brands, the Ministry of Health distributed the free Engabu which was recently suspended for defects.
Voluntary HIV testing was also encouraged with regular doses of counselling and support services provided. The community drive took the form of pop songs, billboard and radio messages popularizing anti-AIDS messages and drama performances and open-air seminars on sex education were held routinely.
The changed social mores: teenagers are postponing sex, casual sex is declining, and unmarried adults are practicing abstinence. Once unheard of, more and more men and women of all ages now use condoms.
“Raising awareness was the mainstay of our initial programme. At first, we focused on instilling fear in the population, but it soon became apparent that many people were insensitive and refractory to calls for behaviour change.
"Fear could only be effective for a short time. Widening the range of prevention options to include condom use as well as avoidance of casual sexual contacts helped our programmes to gain wider acceptance,†Okware says in a 2001 World Health Organisation bulletin article: Fighting HIV/AIDS: is success possible?
That has been partly achieved in Uganda, but the new question is how to maintain the success which has now been boosted with the introduction of life lengthening anti-retroviral drugs.