By Ezrah Kashumbusha,
KAMPALA
Uganda AIDS Commission (UACE) has said that Uganda has significantly made progress in the fight against HIV in the last one decade .
While addressing the media at the Uganda media centre, Dr. Daniel Byamukama, head of HIV prevention at UAC said the number of HIV infections and HIV related deaths have consistently reduced in Uganda.
“In 2022, the country registered 52000 new HIV infections and 17000 related deaths compared to 94000 new infections and 56000 AIDS related deaths in 2010 . This implies the country has not yet attained HIV epidemic control where new infections would fall below all-cause mortality amongst HIV- infected individuals “ Byamukama explained
Results by Uganda Population based HIV impact Assessment (UPHIA) indicate that among adults aged 15 years and older, HIV prevalence was 5.8% ( 7.2 percent among women and 4.3 percent among men) corresponding to approximately 1.3 million adults living with HIV in Uganda.
“Among men, HIV prevalence was highest in the 45 to 49age group per year at 11.1%while among women, HIV prevalence was highest in the 50 to 53 year age group at 13.6% . HIV prevalence appears to have fallen among all age groups in the UPHIA2020 compared to UPHIA 2016/17 except among older individuals aged 50-60 and 60-64 . “ Byamukama explained
In 2020 , young people aged 15 to 24 accounted for more than third 36% percent of all new infections and with in this age group young women accounted for nearly four in one 78% percent of New HIV infections .
Dr Byamukama also highlighted that male circumcision is one of the strategies for HIV prevention in Uganda saying that the proportion of men aged 15 to 49 years that reported being circumcised increased from 42.2 percent in 2016 to 57.7 percent in 2020 . He noted that Uganda is towards achieving her national goal of HIV epidemic control by 2030.
Uganda AIDS Commission will conduct Annual AIDS review of the implementation of the National HIV and AIDS strategic plan to fulfill its mandate of strategic information management from 14th- 16th November 2023 at Kololo Independence Grounds. This year’s theme will be “My responsibility Towards Ending AIDS by 2023
