UNAIDS Country Director Musa Bugundu has advised African governments to invest in the manufacturing of Ante Retroviral Drugs in order to reduce on the high HIV infections across the continent.
“Africa has the highest prevalence rates at 60 percent and yet 80 percent of the treatment comes from Abroad” Bugundu noted.
He added that Government of Uganda and other African Governments should come together have a policy shift so that the continent should start manufacturing it’s own Ante retroviral drugs.
“I strongly advise the African governments to have a policy change so that they begin manufacturing Ante retroviral drugs (ARVs) instead of importing them. This will help in reducing the price of the much needed drugs” he explained.
He further stressed that the ARV drugs are expensive for some communities like the fish folk, sex workers and rural communities and therefore called on the government to increase capacity by procuring from quality chemical limited a local company that manufactures ARV’s.
He attributed the increasing HIV Prevalence among the adolescent girls to engaging in early and unprotected sex and end up being dropping out of school.
“There are over 570 girls who get infected with HIV every week in Uganda and this is where the efforts should be focused now” he stated.
He stressed that many of the adolescent girls are lured into sex due to peer pressure and the love for money.
“There is need to focus on landing sites where fishermen and sex workers have a high prevalence rate and are a big community” he said.
Bungudu also appealed to the married couples to address themselves seriously adding that HIV prevalence was increasing amongst them. He also called on the religious, political and cultural leaders to intensify the fight against HIV/AIDS prevalence in the hard to reach areas.
“Health Centre II’s should be strengthened and upgraded across Uganda so that they can distribute ARV’s” he said.
Bungudu also called African governments to provide people infected with HIV/AIDS a universal card so that wherever they go they can access treatment. He was grateful to the first Lady Hon. Janet Museveni for partnering with several donor countries like Sweden, Denmark and Irish Aid for spearheading the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“If Africa is to register significant strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS then behavioral change is a must. We need to continue to preach faithfulness amongst married couples and abstinence for those who are not yet ready to engage in sexual intercourse. For those who cannot abstain then they can use condoms” he concluded.
According to Uganda Aids Commission Executive Director Christine Ondoa South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria have the highest prevalence rates across the African continent.
“In 2013 there were over 2 million new infections in Africa and Uganda contributed 75 percent of the new infections” she noted.
She revealed that in East Africa Uganda has the highest prevalence at 7.3 percent, Kenya and Tanzania stand 5.3 and 5.6 respectively while Rwanda and Burundi have the lowest prevalence rates at 3 and 1.4 percent.
“Back in the 1990’s Uganda’s prevalence rates was at 18 percent about 250,000 new infections every year and using behavioral change messages and other related interventions the HIV Prevalence rates reduced to 6.4 percent which is about 60,000 new infections every year. This was a huge success” she revealed.
She revealed that a 2011 survey indicated that there was an increase again in the HIV prevalence rates about 160,000 new infections occurred every year.
“In 2013 we reached a tipping point because we were able to put about 193,000 people on treatment and yet infections were estimated to be around 137,000” she noted.
She noted that if Uganda continues with this positive trend then the target of having 80 percent people on treatment will be reached.
Ondoa revealed that Uganda had made significant achievements in the elimination of mother to child transmissions between 2011 to date.
“Between 2011 to date there has been 70 percent reduction in positive mothers transmitting the virus to their babies. In 2011 there were 28,000 babies born with HIV but today it is now 8000 babies” Ondoa explained.
“There should zero new HIV infections, zero death related to HIV/AIDS and zero discrimination by 2025-2030” she stated.
“In the next strategic plan we hope to address some of the gaps in service delivery in the remote areas and vulnerable communities such as the fishing communities. There is need to assess, accredit and equip more health centres so that they can distribute ARV’s and hence reduce on the distance people in remote areas travel to pick the drugs” she continued.
