Elvis Bassude
30 November 2008
Kampala — AS World AIDS Day is marked today, the fight against the disease remains hindered by indequate treatment in poor countries and setbacks in finding an effective vaccine, experts say.
There have been plenty of advances over the past two decades. While 33 million people have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, more are enjoying healthier, longer lives thanks to powerful new medications.
Organisers of World AIDS Day - built around themes of leadership, self-responsibility and activism - are calling on governments to follow through on promises to offer universal treatment, prevention, care and support.
In the latest efforts to fight the spread of HIV in Uganda, The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) recently launched a five-year clinical trial on preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in discordant couples. Discordance is where one partner is HIV-positive and the other negative.
The Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis HIV prevention strategy involves treating negative partners to prevent them from contracting the virus.
"The ABC (abstinence, be faithful and condoms) strategy has been successful for the last 20 years of the epidemic. However, we have reached a point where the HIV epidemic has stalled at a prevalence of 71%. We need to do something different to lower the prevalence," said Dr. Jonathan Wangisi, the deputy director of TASO in charge of research.
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