The Aids Crisis in Uganda

The AIDS Crisis in Uganda

Uganda has provided the home to 32,369,558 people and has been able to provide means for food, shelter and survival (CIA). There is one underlining problem that threatens the existence of its people though: AIDS. Since 1982, AIDS, which the local village people of the Kasenero Village, as well as many others in Africa, refer to as "Slim", has taken the lives of nearly two million Africans, with 50,000 still currently suffering from this deadly disease today. The first case was identified in 1982 (Avert). Like the name "Slim" suggests, the victims of the retrovirus become thin and "waste away" before their eventual death (Hooper). AIDS, which is derived from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, more commonly known as HIV, enters through an infected person's body fluids and destroys the cells of the immune system. It is transmitted through blood transfusions, from mother to child, and through sexual contact; an infected person becomes more susceptible to other diseases such as cancer and infections, eventually leading to death for the infected. In Uganda, there has been a plethora of infected people and the problem continues to grow until recently where Uganda remains one of the only countries where the number of infected has slightly decreased over recent years.

In Uganda there have been particular struggles to remain out of poverty; the economical state that Uganda has remained in has only helped to further AIDS effect on the population. In 1983, Kasenero Village, which has suffered more than any other area in the world due to the AIDS crisis, had lost nearly a quarter of their members to the disease that was just starting to emerge to the world. The remaining alive members of this community who were still considered "sexually active" were nearly all infected with the disease. The importance in this is that those who were "sexually active" were infected, emphasizing the main way AIDS spread throughout the community: sexual contact. Unprotected sex has been a growing problem in Uganda, because of the taboos against condoms and their purpose of birth control (Hooper).

In recent studies comparing Uganda and Kenya, researches noticed the minimal drop in fertility in Uganda, dropping by "less than 10%" between 1980 and 2000 ("Fertility..."_). This study looked at the amount of sexually active men who wear condoms and who do not and why those who do not choose not to. Many reported that they thought condoms to be "dirty" or that they were not readily available enough to them ("Fertility..."). None of these people acknowledged the fact that they could in turn be saving their own lives from the deadly disease; negligence was displayed among nearly all cases despite the attempts to educate and provide people with reasoning for using protection.

Recently in Uganda, due to the work of President Yoweri Museveni, elected in January 1986, there has been a "refreshing response" to the AIDS crisis for Uganda (Hooper). He has provided the country with educational opportunities that have never been given before in all of Africa. Museveni's mission has been to focus on the public and teach reasonable methods through music groups, plays and seminars of how people can protect themselves from the disease; he has also worked to making condoms more readily available to the people who need them. By using what he calls the "ABC" approach, Museveni has been able to promote "abstinence, be[ing] faithful, [and] use[ing] condoms," all of which have helped attribute to the control of the spread of HIV. Museveni has also tried to ensure the safety of the blood supply in the blood banks of Uganda, enforcing his "strong political leadership and commitment" to helping Ugandan people (Avert).

While his methods have helped to make Uganda the only nation where the AIDS crisis has declined in numbers during the 1990s, controlling the problems continues to be a problem. There are reasons that the statistics of a 'declining AIDS problem' may be faulted. For one, many of those infected with the disease may have died, lowering the number of those currently infected. Also, the Museveni has worked to disassociate a "stigma" for those infected with the virus, rather than taking direct action to stop the spread of the disease; while this is the only logical and humane way to spread knowledge and hope for a decrease in the disease, it does not guarantee the desired results (Avert).

In terms of transmisson of HIV in Uganda, there are three modes of infection, each affecting a different portion of the population in Uganda. The number one cause of the crisis is heterosexual sexual activity with a continuing ignorance for condoms. Another major problem is the infections within the Kampala Blood Bank. This blood bank contains 40% of the blood used for all of the blood transfusions throughout Uganda; recent discoveries show that nearly 15% of the blood within in this blood bank is proved to be unsafe and contains the HIV retrovirus. This fact leads to many problems for innocent people who out the country who are in need of blood and believe they are receiving safe blood to cure them when in fact, they will be getting sicker than they were in the first place. While the Ministry of Health in Uganda is trying to sort through this issue and test the blood for the safety of those who use it, there is still a chance that the blood is not safe; blood transfusions requiring large amounts of blood are more likely to receive infected blood (Hooper). The final form of transmission is the passing of the virus from mother to her embryo, more commonly known as "mother to child transmission (MTCT)", which is becoming a greater problem