The Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) has revealed that 100 Ugandans get infected with HIV/AIDs on a daily basis, a trend that has put Uganda’s annual new infections to 72,000.
The revelation was made by Nelson Musoba, Director General Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on HIV and Other Related Matters where he had appeared to update Parliament on the status of HIV/AIDs epidemic and response in Uganda.
He said that Uganda has achieved a lot, however, some subgroups across geographical, socio-economic and demographic divide have remained very vulnerable, implying there are challenges that need to be addressed.
“The new infections are still unacceptably high considering that this translates to approximately 700 people getting infected per week or 100 per day or 4 people per hour. The majority of these new infections are occurring among young people, with young women accounting for 73% of the new infections due to vulnerabilities created by unequal cultural social, and economic status,” he said.
Musoba told Parliament that by the end of 2020, Uganda had an estimated 1.4million people living with HIV/AIDs. According to the Ministry of Health statistics, between 2010 and 2020, Uganda registered a 61% in AIDs related deaths from 56,000 to 22,000 and a 60% decline in new HIV infections from 94,000 to 38,000.
The Commission also called on Parliament to join efforts to reduce new infection rates, arguing that if the new infection rates are reduced to 72,000 in five years, Uganda would be in position to save Shs57Bn spent on treatment.
“The average cost of maintaining one client on treatment for a year inclusive of procurement, storage and delivering the medicines as well as its administering to a patient cost if US$210 equivalent to Shs787,000. By averting 72,000 new infections the country will avoid annual treatment costs approximately Shs57Bn,” said Musoba.
In Uganda, UNAIDS 2020 statistics highlighted that 22,000 people died due to AIDs related illnesses implying that we are still losing over 420 Ugandans to the AIDs scourge each week. Of these, 9000 are males, 4,300 children largely attributed to failure to start treatment early enough and failure to adhere to their medication.
