Govt to supply condoms to hotels, bars

By Umaru Kashaka

The Government plans to distribute condoms in hotels and bars frequented by those at risk for being infected with
HIV/AIDS, the chairman of Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), Prof. Vinand Nantulya, has said.

“We have been taking condoms to wrong places, but we are soon going to distribute them in bars, hotels and all entertainment places, and we shall have enough of them,” he said yesterday while discussing the 2015/2020 National HIV/
AIDS Strategic Plan at Hotel Africana in Kampala.

He said it is projected that annual new infections will grow from 140,000 in 2014 to 340,491 in 2025, resulting in
accumulative 2,890,569 new infections by 2025.

“Between 2007 and 2013, the estimated number of people living with HIV increased from 1.2 million to 1.6 million,”
Nantulya stated.

Health ministry estimates that Ugandans need about 283 million condoms annually. Security minister Muruli Mukasa noted
that although Uganda is registering progress as evidenced by the reducing trend of new infections among the population in the last three years, more work still needs to be done.

He observed that the Government needed to refocus the new strategies as summarised in the new National HIV/ AIDS Strategic Plan to address the sources of new infections, including consideration of gender related interventions.

The chairperson of AIDS Development Partners, Lisa Godwin, warned that if the recently completed HIV investment case
recommendations are not implemented, more 2.2 million Ugandans will become infected and 550,000 Ugandans will lose their lives to HIV by 2025.

According to Uganda AIDS Commission, investment case calls for scaling up of evidence-informed activities among
specific populations to reduce HIV transmission, morbidity and mortality.

Godwin also said if the implementation is delayed by a mere two years, 338,000 additional Ugandans will need
antiretroviral therapy and the cost for treatment will rise to $2.24b.

“These are financial, and more importantly, human costs that we cannot afford,” Godwin said.

UAC director general Dr. Christine Ondoa observed that to drastically reduce the number of new infections, “This will
require more government commitment at multiple levels — political, technical and operational.”