Kampala — HIV-POSITIVE students need special attention. Research shows that 12,000 children in Gulu and Amuru districts are HIV-positive, a very worrying trend. One, they face high chances of infection from older people who offer them trivial gifts.

Even their teachers have been reported to prey on them, from levels as low as primary school. The fact that defilement has not been dealt a decisive blow by way of stringent punishments makes matters worse.

Besides, school children also bare themselves to infection among their peers. School functions, holiday bashes and other illicit boy-girl relationships abound. Schools need to wake up and handle these cases urgently and carefully.

Besides infection, those who are already HIV-positive suffer stigma from their school-mates. There is name-calling, ostracisation as well as, in some skewed cases, over-done sympathy that makes the children living with HIV feel stigmatised. More education on how to support such children is needed.

Programmes like Straight Talk's Safeguard Youth From AIDS need to be complemented. With the aversion to reading in schools, those who have no access to Straight Talk and those who will just not care to read are left to sheer jeopardy! Counselling services for those living with the virus are also vital.