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HIV-Aids activists in Kitgum district are raising the alarm over the escalating HIV prevalence rate in the northern Uganda district.
Statistics for the third quarter of 2010 gathered from 35 health facilities indicates that HIV infection rate in the district is nearly double the national average of six percent.
Thomas Ojok, the Kitgum HIV-Aids focal person says HIV infection rate among women stands at 11.9 compared to 9.2 percent among the men. The infection rate among children aged fie and below is 2.5 percent.
Ojok says a lot needs to be done to curb the spread of the disease ravaging through a district just emerging from war. He says the health sector in the district is operating at a staff level of less than 70 percent.
Jane Odwong, a resident of Kitgum town, attributes the high HIv prevalence rate to what he terms "survival sex" that was common in the camps for internally displaced persons.
Due to the lack of contraceptives like condoms it was common to have unprotected sex.
Odwong says with the return of the IDPs to their ancestral homes, infections are liley to soar unless measures are put in place to prevent more infections.
