Inadequate funding crippling HIV fight
Inadequate funding to the HIV/Aids fight has crippled the efficiency of interventions as well as provision of some commodities.
While commemorating World Aids Day in Kampala yesterday, Dr Nelson Musoba, the Director General of Uganda Aids Commission, said they face a shortfall of about $100m (about Shs368b) every year, which has seen inadequate condoms and targeted HIV testing.
“Totally for the whole country we require approximately $600m (about Shs2.2t) every year to fund all interventions of HIV, including antiretroviral therapy, testing and counselling, laboratory procedures, among others. It means some interventions suffer.
“We don’t have enough condoms to distribute to everyone who needs them, now the HIV testing is very targeted into high risky groups, somebody who is likely to be HIV/Aids positive, those who have factors that point to the likelihood of HIV acquisition,” Dr Musoba said.
According to a 2019 United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS) report, an estimated 1.4 million people are living with the virus, 53,000 new infections are registered annually, and an estimated 21,000 Ugandans died of Aids-related illnesses.
Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the Prime Minister, has urged Ugandans to commit to the fight against HIV/Aids.
He asked the youth to live responsibly minding their health as it will in turn determine their personal success in life and the country as a whole.
US Ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown said stigma and discrimination remains a key challenge in the fight against Aids.
Ms Brown said inadequacy coupled with Covid-19 effects along with insufficient nutritional supplies for patients has stalled the fight.
She notes that a healthy population is the foundation for a country’s social and economic development, the reason why the US invests nearly 500 million dollars in Uganda’s health sector annually.
UNAIDS states that the global Aids response was struggling before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but the rapid spread of the coronavirus has created additional setbacks.
Modelling of the pandemic’s long-term impact on the HIV/Aids response shows that there could be an estimated 123, 000 to 293,000 additional new HIV/Aids infections and 69,000 to 148,000 additional Aids-related deaths between 2020 and 2022.
