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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 4 december 2019

Complacency a concern as AIDS treatment improves in Africa

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA current view of AIDS as just
Associated Press another chronic disease
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — partly encourages risky
AIDS has no cure. HIV is still behavior as people know
here. But some people are there is medicine one can
forgetting that. take shortly after sexual
Those are some of the bold contact to prevent HIV.
messages Uganda's leader "There is this thing that
is emphasizing as health of- there is medicine, and the
ficials try to stem stubbornly psychological part of the
high infection rates among problem is almost forgot-
young people in this East ten," he said. "Prevention is
African country that years being misunderstood."
ago won praise as a global Earlier this year Ugandan
leader in fighting the epi- health authorities released
demic. a report saying an estimat-
In many parts of sub-Saha- ed 1,000 people get infect-
ran Africa, the region most ed with HIV every week,
affected, fewer people are 34% of them between ages
dying from AIDS as treat- 15 and 24.
ment is more widely avail- In Kenya, 51% of all new HIV
able and patients live nor- infections in 2015 occurred
mally. Yet some officials In this Friday, Dec. 1, 2017 file photo, a woman walks past a World AIDS Day banner in Johannesburg, in people between 15 and
and activists worry that suc- South Africa. 24, up from 29% in 2013.
cess may be encouraging Associated Press One in three of all new HIV
a sense of complacency. infections in Kenya occurs
The head of HIV prevention against HIV, believes of- made up 79% of new HIV nence, faithfulness and among teenagers aged 15
at Uganda's AIDS agency, ficials have focused too infections in people ages condom use — brought to 19, according to official
Dr. Daniel Byamukama, much on treatment in re- 10 to 19 in East and south- the HIV rate there from 18% figures.
recently asked leaders cent years and wants them ern Africa in 2017, accord- in 1992 to under 10% by Rahab Mwaniki, a cam-
of a popular church that to speak simply to young ing to UNAIDS. 2005. Although the HIV rate paigner with the Kenya
organizes a retreat for people with messages not- More than 90% of deaths now stands at just over 6%, AIDS NGOs Consortium,
young people to give him ing that "HIV is here with us." worldwide from AIDS-re- the population has soared cited the problem of "ear-
20 minutes to make a pre- An estimated 500 Ugan- lated illness among ado- from 15 million in 1986 to ly sexual debut," saying it
sentation about AIDS. They dans die weekly from AIDS- lescents occurred in sub- over 42 million today, and leads to teenage pregnan-
turned him down, saying related illnesses. Saharan Africa in 2017, in some parts of the country cies and exposes many to
"AIDS is common sense" "Why are you in a hurry to UNAIDS says. And infection the rate is higher than the HIV in a country where 1.6
these days. have sex at 16, at 18, at rates among young people national average. million people have the vi-
Many young people be- 20 and then you die, or likely will rise as Africa expe- "A lot of the young people, rus. Both Kenya and Ugan-
lieve "HIV is gone," he told you start having problems riences a youth boom, with now adolescents, were not da have intensified efforts
The Associated Press. which you may live with its population of over 1.2 bil- old enough to see the old to promote self-testing. An
In Uganda and neighbor- all your life? Why don't you lion expected to double by HIV, how aggressive it was," oral HIV self-test kit, piloted
ing Kenya, countries with wait, hold on, you study, 2050, according to the UK- said Dr. Nelson Musoba, in Kenya, was launched in
two of the world's highest finish your degree and based AIDS charity Avert. chief of the Uganda AIDS Uganda in September by
AIDS rates, campaigners then look for a partner at Health authorities and Commission. "We are telling authorities who say they
point to lower-than-satis- the right time?" Museveni campaigners in Uganda, them that ... if you are not hope it will encourage
factory HIV testing rates says in a video released as with over 70% of its popu- an adult, please abstain." more men to know their
among adult men, early part of a new campaign lation under age 30, say Ugandan students of a cer- status.
sexual experiences among backed by UNAIDS, a Unit- the fear factor once as- tain generation often were Of the 1.4 million Ugandans
many adolescents, inad- ed Nations agency. sociated with HIV has dissi- shown videos of the dev- living with HIV, 14% are not
equate knowledge of HIV More than 37 million people pated, partly encouraging astating toll of AIDS on the aware of their positive sta-
and reproductive health were living with HIV world- risky sexual behavior. Only body and then told to post- tus. It means they are not
and even what UNAIDS wide in 2018, with Africa 9% of men aged between pone the first act of inter- getting treatment and can
calls "a crippling fear of accounting for nearly one 30 and 44 used a condom course. That bluntness was infect others.
buying condoms" among in every 25 adults infected when they had extramari- widely seen as effective in HIV testing "in their privacy
many Ugandans. with the virus, according to tal sex in 2018, according discouraging risky sexual and their convenient time"
Now Ugandan President the World Health Organiza- to official statistics showing behavior. shields men from the ram-
Yoweri Museveni, who tion. a declining rate of con- Rubaramira Ruranga, a pant stigma preventing
earned praise in the 1980s Africa's young people, es- dom use. That's a shift from Ugandan campaigner many from seeking HIV ser-
for his government's open- pecially girls, are among the past. Uganda, with its who has lived with HIV for vices in a hospital setting,
ness in public campaigns the worst affected. Girls ABC strategy — for absti- 35 years, said it is clear the Mwaniki said.q