President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has cautioned Ugandans against prostitution, saying that it’s the main cause of HIV/AIDS infections.
“You people please don’t keep playing around with this problem. Yes, the drugs are there to suppress the virus, but it’s not eliminated. But the advantage we are looking for in suppressing the virus is that when it is much suppressed, the virus doesn’t spread so much,” he advised.
The President made the remarks during the World AIDS Day commemoration held at Bukungu Primary School, Bukungu Town Council, Buyende District under the theme: “Accelerating Interventions to End HIV/AIDS by 2030”.
Currently, the HIV prevalence among sex workers in Mbarara stands at a staggering 54%, significantly higher than the national average of 33%.
“Please stop this indiscipline. All Ugandans should stop living a risky life. You hear the statistics that in the whole world there are 39 million people with the virus. People in the whole world are like 7 billion. Now out of the 39 million, 1.4 million are in Uganda that is a high figure. Why should this be the case?” he wondered.
Museveni also revealed that HIV/AIDS limits the capacity of the infected person.
“There are certain things that you cannot do when you are infected. Like in the army, we discovered that when somebody over-exerts himself with the virus, it can cause a problem. Therefore, don’t say let me get infected since the drugs are available and I will live a normal life. You will not die but you will have deducted on your capacity,” he said.
President Museveni explained that AIDS is really a problem caused by indiscipline.
“When we analyzed when it was threatening us, we found that AIDS was just from three points. Number one was prostitution, number two was blood transfusion before we checked the blood of the givers, then number three was from mother to child transmission in the womb,” he said.
“But to show that it’s not really a serious disease, when you take the mother to child transmission, even without any intervention, we found out that only 30 percent would pass from mother to child even if the mother had the virus. Initially we were worried that it was going through mosquito bites and so on. But then we found that it was not possible. So, we closed the route of blood transfusion. The one for mother to child we also closed it; because the technology which would stop transmission from mother to child became available.”
Furthermore, the President advised that when someone tests HIV positive, he/she should start taking drugs as prescribed by health practitioners so that they are able to stay alive and healthy.
“Although it’s not what I prefer for you, it’s better than dying because if you live longer, you will be able to look after your children so by the time you leave this world, they are in a better position. You can work, make a contribution and as you have heard, you are less infectious if the viral load is suppressed. Therefore, from a national point of view, it’s good because it will stop you from spreading the virus more aggressively.”
President Museveni also lauded the Ugandan researchers who are moving in the right direction to make a vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
“There are even our children who are threatening to treat AIDS completely by killing the virus. I’m going to support and fund them fully,” he said.
“As we are still struggling with the ARVs, our people have found a medicine where you take one injection every two months instead of taking tablets every day. I want to thank our scientists for really doing a good job.”
