NMS, Cipla: Fight over pricing could lead to higher costs for patients and the government “NO ARVs means death.” That shocking but true fact was stated by Joshua Wamboga, the head of the Uganda Network of AIDS Service Organisations (UNASO) in January when Uganda was reeling from a major stock-out …
Read More »Nabimanya talks HIV prevention
INTERVIEW: Humphrey Nabimanya calls himself a social entrepreneur. Apart from hosting a youth show on one of the local TV stations, Nabimanya is a HIV/AIDS activist and a counselor. “My personal experience and what I witnessed in society created a yearning in me to cause change,” he says. He says …
Read More »Health expert warns about high HIV/AID deaths among adolescents
A leading Ugandan health expert has warned that the country still faces unprecedented deaths related to HIV/AIDS mainly among the pediatric and adolescent age group. HIV is the second leading cause of deaths among adolescents in Uganda, reported to be at 11%, according to statistics at the ministry of health. According to Dr. Sabrina …
Read More »‘Sugar daddies’ and ‘blessers’: A threat to AIDS fight
Durban, South Africa | AFP | Lebogang Motsumi, 27, still remembers the moment when she learnt she had contracted HIV from a man a decade her senior. “It was August 15, 2009, at 1:00pm,” she said, recalling the instant when her life changed traumatically. “I was so ignorant,” she said. …
Read More »New look at circumcision
Circumcision figures per year 2010 – 9,052 2011 – 57,132 2012 – 368,490 2013 – 801,678 2014 – 878,109 2015 – 556, 673 On the day he was circumcised, Sylvester Kule was scared and nervous. He is Mukonzo, a traditionally circumcising tribe, indigenous to the volatile Mt. Rwenzori region of …
Read More »Only 58% of births attended by skilled health personnel
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released its health statistical report for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ‘Monitoring Health for SDGs’ report reveals that whereas Ugandans are on average living longer than in the past, only 58% of births are attended by a skilled health personnel. According to the …
Read More »Baylor College praised as Uganda marks World Health Day
As Uganda prepares to mark World Health Day with celebrations in Mityana, the US Ambassador Deborah Malac last week visited the Baylor College of Medicine-Uganda Paediatric Center of Excellence (COE). Funded by the U.S. Government through the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Baylor-Uganda leads the way in HIV care and …
Read More »Inside Uganda’s lab hub
New viral load tests for HIV pile pressure on national laboratories The fight against new and emerging diseases and the emphasis placed on surveillance and testing before treatment are piling pressure on Uganda’s laboratory services. At the centre of this fight is the Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL), a government …
Read More »More young people dying of HIV
By Flavia Nassaka Experts say better targeted messages can cause behaviour change On December 23, when most people were preparing to celebrate Christmas, Teopista Mbabazi, was in agony. The 42-year woman was burying her only daughter. She was only 17-years old and had died of AIDS.She told The Independent that …
Read More »New guidelines for HIV treatment
By Flavia Nassaka Health sector experts say they pose new challenges The new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, including requiring that Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are provided immediately a patient is diagnosedto be HIV positive, could be difficult to implement, according to health sector experts. Previous WHO guidelines required doctors to …
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