Govt unveils plan to end AIDS by 2030

The Government has launched a one-year HIV and AIDS messaging and communication media campaign as part of the strategy to end HIV and AIDS as a public health threat in Uganda by the year 2030.

The media campaign, whose messages will cover a range of HIV and AIDS themes, is part of President Yoweri Museveni’s Presidential Fast- track Initiative on ending HIV and AIDS in Uganda by 2030.

Museveni launched the initiative in June 2017. The initiative spells out plans to tackle HIV and AIDS in Uganda through a five-point strategy to:

• Engage men in HIV prevention and close the tap on new infections, particularly among adolescent girls and young women
• Accelerate implementation of test-and-treat and attainment of 90-90-90 targets, particularly among men and young people
• Consolidate progress on eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV
• Ensure financial sustainability for the HIV response
• Ensuring institutional effectiveness for a well-co-ordinated multi-sectoral response.

During the launch, Museveni expressed concern about the way HIV and AIDS messaging and communication had been confusing and misinforming the public.

Consistent messaging key Bagambe,

He said correct and consistent messaging on preventing and managing HIV and AIDS should be at the core of the country’s interventions.

To achieve the 2030 target, the Government yesterday launched the public awareness campaign, through the use of broadcast media, such as radios and TVs.

Esther Mbayo, the Minister for the Presidency, said the move is expected to help enhance the prevention of HIV and AIDS in Uganda.

“We know that the absence of a proper message negates all our interventions and will significantly slow our efforts of ending AIDS by 2030,” Mbayo told journalists yesterday, at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala.

She was accompanied by officials from the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) and Dr Karusa Kiragu, the UNAIDS representative to Uganda. 90-90-90 target on course Mbayo said over the past two years, the UAC had been co-ordinating the initiative, noting that a recent review indicated that Uganda is on course to achieve the UNAIDS 90- 90-90 targets.

The 90-90-90 targets project that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of all people diagnosed with HIV will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

Some of the messages that will be aired for HIV prevention in Uganda will focus on young In some of the messages, the President is heard urging Ugandans, especially the youth, to abstain from sex and also be faithful to their partners

“We need to constantly remind our people that HIV is still with us, has no cure and that everyone should do whatever they can do, to avoid it,” Mbayo noted.

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