The campaign and messages on HIV/AIDS are shifting focus from treatment to prevention.
Dr. Kuhumuro Apuuli, the Director General of the Uganda Aids Commissions, says that the campaign has in the last few years focused on treatment, yet the cost of HIV treatment is unsustainable for Uganda because of the high lifetime cost of keeping even a single person living with HIV, on ARVs.
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Dr. Richard Nduhuura, the Minister of Health in charge of General Duties, while speaking at the commemoration of the HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, emphasised the need for change in the focus, to be able to keep the HIV epidemic in check.
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About 1.1 million Ugandans are living with HIV and only 21% of these know their status.
Shifting the campaign towards prevention should reduce the number of new infections.
Dr. Apuuli says, that risky sexual behavior has increased tremendously over the last four years especially among both men and women. He adds that 1 percent of all men between the ages of 15 and 49 are clients of commercial sex workers. Such men act as a bridge for the spread of HIV in other communities.
HIV prevalence among commercial sex workers is estimated at about 50%.
Such trends have therefore created the need for a national sero -survey, to determine the prevailing levels of HIV prevalence.
James Kigozi, the Communications Officer for the Uganda Aids Commission, says the prevalence rate could have gone up from 6.4 percent since the last sero-survey almost 6 years ago, due to such behavioral trends.
Kigozi says the survey will be conducted in September and October this year and will be used as a guiding tool for the prevention campaigns.
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Research into an HIV vaccine is one other efforts Uganda is making towards finding a lasting solution to the epidemic.
