The Director
General of Uganda Aids Commission, Dr Nelson Musoba, has said clinical
trials on new injectable HIV treatment is...
being finalised and government will unveil it next year.
being finalised and government will unveil it next year.
Officiating at the
commemoration of Zero Discrimination Day in Kampala on Sunday, Dr Musoba
said the treatment will reduce the problem stigma and discrimination
present to Uganda’s ambition of ending HIV prevalence as a major public
health threat by 2030.
“Research is in advanced stages
on the injectable treatment for HIV that patients will take one dose
after every eight weeks. This new treatment comes with a lot of relief
and convenience...,” he said.
Dr Musoba said the
treatment will also curb the low adherence to medication as it will be
unlikely that patients will forget the treatment schedules.
The function was in Bwaise, a Kampala suburb, one of the HIV-prone areas in the city.
The
function was held in cooperation with Uganda Network of Law Ethics and
HIV/Aids (UGANET) to raise awareness and bring government officials to
dialogue with HIV infected slum women and girls who “suffer from stigma
and discrimination.”
Ms Dora Kiconco, the UGANET Executive Director, a coalition of
around 30 organisations that deal with HIV issues in Uganda, said women
and girls with HIV remain disproportionately affected by discrimination.
“It
is absurd that maids are discriminated in homes and several other
people refused jobs because they are HIV positive,” Ms Kiconco said.
Ms
Imaculate Owomugisha, the head of advocacy and strategic litigation at
UGANET, a non-profit organisation that gives free legal aid to
marginalised people facing discrimination, says the problem is still
huge in Uganda.
“Three decades of experience in the
global response to HIV show that human rights based approaches to HIV
prevention, treatment, care and support –coupled with enabling legal
environments to safeguard rights – help reduce people’s vulnerability to
HIV,” Ms Owumoguisha said.
Daily in Uganda, up to 21
per cent of men and 20 per cent of women skip taking their HIV drugs in
fear that their status will be known and that they will face
discriminated against, according to the 2019 Stigma Index for Persons
Living with HIV (PLHIV).
UNAIDS Uganda office
Ms
Sarah Nakku, the Community mobilisation adviser of The Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) at Uganda office, maintained that
women living with HIV in Uganda still face more discrimination.
“Women
and girls who are affected with HIV face three times more
discrimination than men. They are also the most affected when they go
for politics as people use their status to decampaign them,” Ms Nakku
said.
She said AIDS remains the biggest killer of women
aged 15–49 years and that to end AIDS by 2030, people must end
gender-based violence, inequality and insecurity and we must ensure that
women and girls have equal access to education, health and employment.
About Zero Discrimination Day
Zero
Discrimination Day is celebrated every 1 March, to raise awareness that
everyone has a right to live a full and productive life—and live it
with dignity.
Zero Discrimination Day highlights how
people can become informed about and promote inclusion, compassion,
peace and, above all, a movement for change. Zero Discrimination Day is
helping to create a global movement of solidarity to end all forms of
discrimination.
This year, UNAIDS is challenging the
discrimination faced by women and girls in all their diversity in order
to raise awareness and mobilize action to promote equality and
empowerment for women and girls.
Stigma
Daily
in Uganda, up to 21 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women skip
taking their HIV drugs in fear that their status will be known and that
they will face discriminated against, according to the 2019 Stigma Index
for Persons Living with HIV.
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