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Uganda: Bukenya Calls for Research Into ABC Strategy
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The Monitor (Kampala)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Kakaire Kirunda & Grace Natabaalo
Munyonyo
VICE President Gilbert Bukenya wants research into Uganda's main HIV prevention strategy of ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, Condom use) in order to understand the resurging infections that are once again raising concern.
"There is need for research to establish what has worked and what has not worked," Prof. Bukenya said yesterday while opening the 5th National Aids conference.
The conference is organised every two years by the Uganda Aids Commission. "Researchers should be able to carry out operational research to know why there is an increase in infections yet we still have in place this policy that worked very well."
Prevalence was reduced from over 18 per cent in the early 1990s to five per cent early this decade but it has now gone up to 6.4 per cent.
Uganda registers at least 132,000 new infections of HIV/Aids every year.
The ABC strategy has of late received a lot of criticism as some of its elements like condom use have been over shadowed by abstinence, which experts say is not realistic when over emphasised.
Prof. Bukenya said there was need to promote the strategy in its entirety for it to be an effective and feasible approach.
However, while delivering a keynote address, the Executive Director of the Infectious Diseases Institute, Dr Alex Coutinho, observed that Uganda has done a lot of research that could help curtail the high infection rates but most of it has not been put into practice and policy.
"We have got a challenge. Uganda has research that is really important," he said.
"But unfortunately other people are taking our research and making good use of it. We tend to stagnate when it comes to putting into practice most of this research that promotes prevention."
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"For instance while Uganda is among the countries that conducted the study that indicated that circumcision reduces by 60 per cent the chances of HIV infection in men, countries like Rwanda have taken it on with full force as we take time to formulate a policy. President Kagame is at the forefront of advocating voluntary circumcision," said Dr Coutinho.
Meanwhile, in a pre-national Aids conference on children that was held earlier, child based organisations called for more meaningful child participation in formulation of HIV/Aids programmes for children.
They noted that the involvement of children in interventions contributes to a more effective understanding of children's problems and needs.
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