Kampala — THE Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli, has asked the private sector to come up with policies to curb the rate of HIV infections.

"we are not containing the new infections," he said. Kihumuro made the remarks during a breakfast on HIV awareness for small and medium enterprises, organised by Standard Chartered Bank at Hotel Africana in Kampala last week.

Quoting research findings of 2006, Kihumuro said Uganda records 132,000 new infections annually. He lamented that only 42% of these have access to anti retroviral drugs.

"The number of people getting infected is higher than those dying of HIV/AIDS," he noted. Kihumuro told the business community present that Uganda was losing 1.6% of GDP as a result of HIV due to low productivity because of sickness and high cost of health care.

Stephen Watiti of Mildmay Centre observed that stigma prevented many workers from accessing treatment for fear or being victimised by their employers.