The possibility of ending Aids by 2030
Andrew Wallace
We have made remarkable progress in controlling and treating HIV.
We now have tools and methods that are dramatically lowering the number of new infections in new born babies. In addition, we also know that starting treatment early can stop HIV from progressing and bring down the unacceptably high rate of HIV-related deaths.
But having these are not enough. We have to keep up the fight until it’s really over. Ultimately, we will need to act quickly and decisively, and use all the available methods currently at our disposal in an efficient but also effective manner.
For example, endless awareness campaigns, especially among young adults, free check-ups, easy access to drugs and affordable treatment. If we don’t, the opportunity that is within our grasp today may slip away tomorrow.
The gains are real but the progress is uneven. We evidently have a few loose ends to tie up.
Ivan Okuda
Of course, ending AIDS by 2030 is a fantasy like many others. Ending? We can talk about reducing the number of new infections by say 60 per cent which is more realistic. Middle income status by 2020. Now ending Aids by 2030 and in these unrealistic plans lies our weakness which essentially is talking more and acting less.
What happened to the gains we made at the onset of this war against Aids in the 90s? The last I checked the Uganda Aids Commission estimated the number of new infections at no less than 540 per week among 18 to 25-year-olds. Our youngsters are on rampage.
We have made good progress with respect to stigma, prevention of mother to child infections and reach of anti-retroviral treatment but if we can’t curb the rising infections we shall be moving three steps back. We need to emphasise behaviour change because HIV/Aids is largely a behaviour disease.
We need to return to the vigour of the 1990s where we all fear HIV/Aids and sensitise from family, school and community level up to the presidency. Churches, mosques, work place, all have to bring out their arsenal for us to make serious progress. We can considerably reduce new infections by 2030.
Eugene Mugisha
It is possible, in politic-speak. In reality, unless a medical cure is got, that is going to be a difficult one.
Difficult because the only other thing that can combat its rampant spread is a high level of awareness and lifestyle change.
Once upon a time, the people were truly scared of HIV as a deadly disease.
But not anymore, it is like they became immune to the sensitisation messages, turning some of them into jokes (think of ‘side dish’). Yes it is possible to eliminate HIV by 2030, but the effort will have to be above the standards that we have come to expect from most of the Ugandan institutions.
Benjie
Desirable but highly improbable. “We” are having more sex than has ever and experimenting with all sorts of things. Worse still, we are so stuck up on our approach to sex education.
We are pushing for abstinence when there is no evidence that it works. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence from around the world that early sex education curtails risks like contracting HIV but because we like to pretend that we are so religious and/or cultural, we would rather let our young people discover things for themselves.
I have known sexually active people more worried about the possibility of pregnancy than they are about the potential dangers of catching diseases.
If sex is the number one cause of HIV/Aids, then this 2030 idea is really a pipe dream. Unless of course, there is a cure being cooked up somewhere.
