HIV rising among pregnant teenagers

When Rose Mary Nakatte (not real name ) left school during last year’s Covid-19 induced lockdown, and settled at her parents’ home at Kibanga Village  in Kalangala District, she was optimistic that the situation would get back to normal to enable her pursue her future dreams.

Five months into the first lockdown, Nakatte , who was in Primary Seven at one of the schools in Kalagala Town Council, was lured into sexual acts by a fishmonger, who impregnated her.

By the time Nakatte ’s classmates sat for their Primary Leaving Examination between March 23 and 24 ,  she was seven months pregnant and never bothered to register for her final exams.

“ I could not raise the examination registration fees since my parents were already annoyed with me. I just gave up on studies and shifted the focus to my pregnancy ,” she says.

Nakatte, who gave birth in March, is among  the 200  teenage  girls under the age of 16, who have given birth in Kalangala in the last 19 months. Of the 200 teenage mothers, 94 were found to be HIV positive.

Statistics from the nine districts of Masaka Sub-region, show that more than 1,000 teenager mothers have contracted HIV/Aids during the two lockdowns.

The highest number of teenage mothers who contracted HIV/Aids has been recorded in Rakai which has 166, followed by Kyotera(144), Sembabule (140), Masaka (130), Bukomansimbi (122),  Lwengo (112) Lyantonde (105), Kalangala (100) and Kalungu (94) .

According to health authorities, the HIV/Aids cases recorded among teenagers double the number which they recorded when schools were open.

However, the tested teenagers are those who appeared at health centres and hospitals to receive antenatal care.
Dr Edward Muwanga , the Kyotera District health officer, says many parents have failed to sensitise their children about the dangers of early sex and pregnancy –something that has exposed them to risky lifestyles, which include having unprotected sex with multiple partners during the long holiday.

“The more parents continue to shy away from talking to their children about the dangers of HIV/Aids, the more they are going to get exposed to the scourge,” he says.

In some instances, Dr Muwanga says children leave their homes and spend days with their peers and parents don’t question them.

“If a teenager claims she has gone to visit a female classmate and spends some days there, how sure are you that she is with a friend? This  shows how some parents have abdicated their parental roles and left the children to decide whatever they want, which is very dangerous,” he adds.

Mr Joseph Kintu, a parent in Rakai District, told Daily Monitor that more than 20 school-going teenagers have so far got married in his village of Bigando, Ddwaniro Sub-county.

“I know at least 20 girls in my locality who have got married after getting pregnant. Many parents can no longer control these children because they have become unruly,” he says .

Mr Fortunate Musinguzi, a spokesperson at Reproductive Health Uganda, says the high rate of early marriages and pregnancies justify  cases of  sexually transmitted  diseases, including HIV/Aids .

“Let’s accept that this problem is with us and as stakeholders,  we need  to find a solution. The young mothers need rehabilitation and those with HIV/Aids should be  enrolled on Antiretroviral treatment to save their lives ,” he says.  

Ms Goreth Namuddu, one of the coordinators of the adolescents and young women skilling programme in Kalangala District, says they have registered an    increase in the number of young mothers joining the programme, especially during the lockdown.

“We receive between five and seven from each of the seven sub-counties every month and this ever increasing number of pregnant girls in Kalangala is attributed to school closure,” she says.

Ms Caroline Nabweere, a midwife at Kalangala Health Centre IV, says many  of the pregnant girls who need antenatal  services visit the facility once towards delivery .

Records at Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) indicate that Uganda registered 38,000 new HIV infections in 2020, which is 28 percent lower than 53,000 infections recorded in 2019. 

New HIV infections in the country had stagnated at 53,000 in 2018 and 2019, according to previous data from the UAC. Although there was a significant reduction, Dr Nelson Musoba , the director general of UAC, says 38,000 infections are still very high and that it means more than 104 people get infected daily.

In 2020 alone, 5,300 babies were born with HIV/Aids, while the new infection rates were four times higher among female adolescents than in their male counterparts.  
The commission is aiming to avert 43,000 new infections among adolescent girls and young women.